Welcome to Kalimdor
by Maddog3060
Summary: A new warrior of the Alliance finds help in an unlikely place.
1. Chapter 1

"Fall back!" The shout was clear in the night, despite the horrendous din that surrounded the two, armed men as they clashed swords with the enemy. "There's too many of them!"

Jake only grunted at his comrade's words, being involved as he was in driving his sword into the head of a quillboar, and then pulling the weapon back again before of the slain pig-man's friends hacked his arm off with their own implements. "Easier said than done, Yarin," Jake replied heatedly as he took a step back before swinging the sword again, parrying a mace from making contact with his ribs. "Where's the rogue?"

"Dead," Yarin replied briefly before deflecting a blow with his shield. He than slammed the warhammer he carried down upon the beastly attacker in retribution before backing away from another quillboar's sword. "One on your right!"

Jake swing around blindly, slashing his sword through the air, only to have it meet the arm of another pig-man as it was about to stab him in the back. A shriek of pain echoed briefly over the usual cries and squeals the loathsome barbarians as blood flowed freely from the deep cut. Jake stepped back at that, hoping to get more space to engage in a proper swing, but a sudden clang of armor and an unyielding object brought him to a stop. A glance behind him showed that Yarin had stepped back as well, and now the two human swordsmen were entirely surrounded by no less than eight of the burly savages. "What do we do, Yarin?" The younger warrior asked, looking around the scene as the enemy fell back a few steps to reorganize their formation so that no escape was possible.

Yarin sighed, and Jake noted that there was something distinctly wrong with the noise as it sounded as if liquid was softly bubbling. "I'm sorry, Jake… Damn, I'm sorry," Yarin said as he slowly slipped to the ground, his armor scratching and squealing against Jake's.

"Yarin!" Jake shouted, turning around to see that an arrow had lodged in the other warrior's chest, blood pouring from the wound and from the blonde man's mouth as he watched. His time to observe this was slim, unfortunately, as the quillboar rushed him, and Jake pushed everything from his mind; everything, save rage.

The next few minutes were a blur as the human fed his rage into his moves. Martial training long since ingrained took on new life as he used every trick he knew of to fight the accursed pig-men. Metal sang as swords clashed, his shield seemed to move with a will of its own, alternately interposing itself between his body and deadly blows and then swinging out to smash the faces and limbs of his foes.

Even with his newfound furor, however, Jake felt the blows start to land, as he could not protect his back, and he could only block two of the three savages in front of him. The chainmail he wore offered some protection, but strikes from maces bruised his muscles, and slashes from swords snapped links and drove cuts into his flesh, pushing deeper and deeper as the armor was battered and torn.

So too, was Jake battered and torn. His strength ebbed away inevitably under the relentless blows, yet he still forced himself to fight on, to try and take the enemy with him. He did indeed kill four more of the pig-men, but in slaying the last of that grisly quartet his failing abilities left his back open, and one of the boars drove a sword into a rent in the armor.

Jake screamed in pain as he felt the last of his strength leave him, and he fell to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut, finally giving in to the exhaustion. _I'm so sorry, father_, he thought as one of the pig-men rolled him over, and another dressed in the robes of one of their leading mages skittered over, pulling a dagger from its belt. _May the Light keep me, protect me from harm_, he began the prayer in his mind as the quillboar raised the jagged blade to drive it into his throat. _…And stand between me and all the dark places I must walk._

A screeching squeal of triumph emanated from the mage, and the last three warriors around it echoed the unearthly cry. Then they were abruptly cut off as the mage-boar's head exploded into a splatter of gore, and the sound of a gunshot echoed across the land. The three remaining pig-men turned and screeched out in anger, but again they were cut off as a wolf pounced out of the gloomy night, toppling one of the boars and ripping into its throat with brutal ferocity. The other two ignored their suffering comrade, and quickly began to charge towards where they had seen the flash of the gun. Despite his extreme exhaustion and the encroachment of pain resulting from the abuse he'd suffered, Jake managed to lift his head and watch as the two quillboar ran headlong towards the new foe. His addled mind was only mildly surprised when he saw something light up in the distance and then flew towards him in a gentle arc that brought it to a thudding stop right in front of the charging pig-men.

The sudden squeal of terror was almost delicious as the two savages tried to stop, realizing what had landed before them. Unfortunately, they were already in the blast radius, and the detonation engulfed both, searing them with fire and sending hot metal shards to rip through their vitals, and they fell to the ground. There was silence for a moment, until one of them stirred, managing to slowly drag itself upright, and turned to once again head off towards the mysterious assailant. It wasn't long before a dark shape moved from where shot and bomb had come from, and moonlight glinted off of the burnished metal of a large sword before the weapon scythed down, cleaving the man-beast in half.

Upon seeing the last of the quillboar slain, Jake felt even the bit of strength holding his head up fade away, and he let it thump to the ground as he heard footsteps, both bipedal and quadrupedal, close in on his position. _May the Light bless me and keep me…_ He thought before his eyes fluttered closed and he faded into darkness.

* * * *

The first thing that he became aware of was the dull, throbbing pain that seemed to emanate from every portion of his body. Jake groaned as his mind gradually swam its way out of unconsciousness, replacing dark nightmares of death with slowly increasing sensory information. The pain especially helped draw him further awake, and after a moment, the warrior realized that he could see light through his eyelids, telling him it was day. It also made him wince and tighten his lids down a bit before he moved his left arm up to cover his face.

Or rather, he tried to, but instead found that the arm was bound to something, keeping it from moving. _Not that I mind_, he decided, after the slight tug he gave it made the whole limb light up in fire. _Deeps, it must be broken_, Jake thought, now understanding the binding. _That means a healer, which means-_

Filled with hope, Jake slowly opened his eyes, squinting a bit before his pupils adjusted. At first all he saw was blue sky and a tree shading him from the sun, though the latter's unique shape told him he was still in the Barrens. He then slowly turned his head down to check on his arm, finding that it was tied to a pair of long, heavy metal poles that braced and weighted the limb simultaneously. After looking to make sure that the bone was set straight, he then carefully used his right arm to push his torso up just a bit, wincing in the pain this caused him before he looked over the area around him.

He saw immediately that he was at a temporary camp of some sort set in a small cul-de-sac in the side of a low hill. Off to his left was a small circle of stones around a pile of ash and charcoal, around which was arrayed a pan, a pot, several traveling bags of disparate designs, and a bedroll on the opposite side of where Jake laid upon several furs, clad only in his undershirt and breeches. Looking at the bags, he noticed that one of them was actually a rather large, metal toolbox, and it had been left open, displaying an array of small parts, which made him relax somewhat. _An engineer, must be one from Bael'dun Keep_, he told himself, thinking of the Dwarven stronghold. _Thank the Light, I'm safe_.

A snort came from his right, then, sounding as if it came from a large animal. Tensing up despite the pain it caused, Jake turned his head slowly to see that a massive beast had been tied up to the trunk of the tree, its reins having been loosened to give the creature more comfort. So surprised was he at not having noticed the animal previously, that it took the warrior a few moments to recognize the beast. _It's… It's a kodo? Oh, no… That means-_

He began to sit up then, or rather, tried to, until the pain of trying to lift his broken arm, and the weight the splints had on it, nearly made him pass out. Jake fell back onto the furs, and panted a bit as he waited for the pain to subside a bit. "Oh Light, please help me," he whispered, praying for a moment as he tried to think of what he could do.

Jake laid there for quite some time, trying to figure out a way to stand up, to leave and make good his escape. _Only Horde use kodo… Well, them and the goblins, but I sincerely doubt one of those little chisellers would fight off quillboar, or take care of me. But then, if it's a Hordesman, why help me?_

The sound of approaching footsteps brought the warrior out of his reverie, and he decided to lie still and close his eyes, hoping that by feigning unconsciousness he might be able to avoid or delay whatever fate the barbarian would have in store for him. As he lay, Jake focused his attention as much as he could, and he realized that there were two sets of feet approaching, and doing so from a distance, but approaching rapidly at a good clip. Soon enough, the sounds rounded the rise on his right that he'd seen behind the kodo, and they pulled to a stop near that large animal. _From the sounds of it, it's another mount_, Jake thought, recognizing the heavy thuds of one set of feet as having significant weight above them, yet he was confused, as he could have sworn that he only heard two of the ground pounding limbs. The other set of movement sounds he did understand, though, as it was the mostly soft padding of a canine, and his mind recalled the wolf during the battle.

The two newcomers halted then, and with the usual sounds of fabric, leather, and metal sliding against one another, the rider dismounted from the mount with a heavy thud. The latter let out a shrill, but low cry of some sort, and Jake was confused no more as to its identity: _a raptor_.

The rider fiddled with something that made noise, which Jake presumed to be the animal's reins, and after a few moments heavy footfalls approached his position. _He sounds enormous_, Jake thought, and mentally forced his muscles to remain lax as the mysterious person approached with the wolf, hoping that he could fool them both.

"I know you're awake," a voice said in accented, but understandable Common, making Jake tense up as he realized he was caught. Right after he did, though, the voice spoke again. "Huh, you're actually awake this time? I knew that would work if I did it enough," the rider said in mirth, and Jake blushed heavily as he realized that he'd been bluffed. Gritting his teeth, he opened his eyes again and slowly turned to look up at the person that was either his rescuer or his captor.

_A Tauren?_ He asked himself in surprise as he turned his head upward to make eye contact with the naturally tall being, and was then promptly surprised again as he noted it was a female.

The Tauren looked down at him with an amused expression on her face, or so Jake assumed since he wasn't familiar with that race's face structure. She was clad from head to hoof in mail of various design and manufacture, showing the piecemeal acquisition common of dedicated hunters. His eyes caught on the large, dragonbone shoulder pads and the set of heavy, glowing goggles that rested on her brow, just above her green eyes, the headgear marking her as an engineer, and the shoulder armor indicating experience and prowess.

"You can speak, can you not?" She asked, her voice having a feminine quality that Jake didn't notice before in his panic. He frowned at her a bit, but nodded slowly. "Aye, I can," he said, carefully.

"Good," the Tauren said, walking forward and stepping over Jake, while the wolf simply sat down sullenly and watched him. "Let me have a look at this arm," she said, kneeling down and bending over to bring her large frame down enough to examine the human's broken limb. Still unsure of what was going on, Jake simply held his peace and only occasionally grunted in pain as the huntress prodded the bound arm occasionally with one of her thick fingers.

"Looks good," the Tauren said, standing up from her examination. "I'm not a healer, but a broken arm is easy enough," she added, turning to head over to the fire circle. Jake then noticed that she had a bundle of wood large enough to crush a gnome casually slung on her back, which she promptly removed and set down on the ground.

Several minutes passed as the huntress slowly cleaned out the pit and started to build a stack of wood to burn, during which no words were said, and Jake became more confused as time went on. _What is this? What is she doing? How can she speak Common? _The questions continued to roll around in his head while the Tauren continued to work on starting the fire. Still, he remained as silent as the huntress, determined to try and remain focused on the situation, both to learn about his enemy, and also to seek a way to escape.

Minutes turned into an hour, as the huntress built the fire up and waited for it to get to the point where food could be cooked. She had taken down a bag hanging from one of the branches of the shade-giving tree, and removed several bundles before returning the food store to its animal-safe position. Jake watched in quiet interest as she prepared the meat and bread, turning it into a meal. Much to his chagrin, he felt his stomach growl a bit at the smell. The Tauren heard it, and gave him a smirk – the first time she'd paid direct attention to him since beginning cooking – and he frowned back at her before turning his head to look around the camp some more. He didn't see much that was different from the fifty or so times he had done so previously; the wolf was laying down now, but still watching him, but other than that, the only change had been the large, massive animal that the Tauren had rode in on. Jake spent another few moments looking over it again, not recognizing the animal's specific strain, as it was much, much larger than most of the raptor's he'd seen in his travels.

"Here," the Tauren's voice said from close by, making Jake jump slightly before turning to see her offering him a small tin bowl, a piece of spice bread and a chunk of roasted meat lying within. He just stared at it, though, still confused at the hospitality, and made no move one way or the other. The Tauren sighed at that. "If you do not eat, you will heal much more slowly. Surely, you know that?"

Jake blushed slightly at her question. "Yes, I do," he began. "But I do not understand why you're helping me, and that makes me suspicious."

"Do you think I would go to all this trouble, killing quillboar and healing you just to poison you?" She asked, bemused. After a moment, Jake relented, and he reached out with his intact arm to take the bowl, which he set upon the ground next to him. He still didn't eat from it, though, until he watched the Tauren take the rest of the food from the pan with a fork and partake of it, whereupon he promptly took up the bread and began to eagerly eat. It was hard, only having one hand and being forced to eat from a contorted, reclined position, and he also dreaded having to eat the steak with his hand. _Probably part of her plan, debase me, feed me like an animal, or something,_ he thought bitterly.

Movement from the Tauren made him look up, and he had barely done so when she drove a fork into the steak in his bowl, and left it there. "Feel free to use it," she said, leaving the utensil as she stood up with her bowl and walked away from the fire a bit and whistled. "Sha'tu, Mikula!" She called out, and the wolf that had been watching the scene patiently leapt up and dashed over as she placed the bowl on the ground.

Jake turned away from the mundane scene, as he was familiar with such events from his own life. Instead, he focused on the fork jabbed into the steak, and pondered about it. _This is the fork she was using; did she clean it off? What if she didn't?_ He felt a mild revulsion at that. _Ugh, Hordesmen, don't appreciate cleanliness_. Despite these thoughts, his hunger overrode his pride, and Jake begrudgingly took hold of the fork and used it to lift the steak up so he could tear a bite out of it. Despite the oversized nature of the fork – to his hands, at least – he devoured the meat readily, and then set the fork and the bowl aside and lay on his back, his hunger more than satisfied. _I hate to admit it, but that was good._

* * * *

The rest of the day passed on, and Jake soon realized he had awoken near lunch. As such he had the rest of the long, hot spring day to do almost nothing, save watch the Tauren move about the camp, cleaning the dishes and cookware, knocking down the fire so it would die and conserve its still un-burnt fuel, and then fiddling with some of her engineering devices. That a Tauren would be an engineer was interesting enough to the human, as he thought all of the bull-men were nature-worshipping primitives. He had heard of their great lifts and windmills, but he assumed that these were mainly inspired by the Orc and Goblin influences, and not true expressions of development. _Not only does this hunter work with diligence, but she seems to be rather enthralled_, he observed, wondering if this could be used to his advantage somehow. He recanted on those ideas, though, when he noticed that she tended to toy around mainly with explosives and some gadgets of Goblin design, most notably a large device that he had heard from rumors to be called a "rocket launcher." _I don't think I want to be on the business end of that thing_, he had thought with a small shudder before lying down for a nap as fatigue overtook him.

He awoke again when the sun was low, and the various hills and mountains of the Barrens cast their long, dark shadows across the plains. Again, he was alone, the Tauren having gone off somewhere on her raptor mount again with her wolf. He experienced a moment of panic at that as his arm was still weighted down, but soon enough he relaxed upon seeing the camp still laid out as before, and the kodo still tied up, albeit now it was lying on the ground and slumbering peacefully. He sighed angrily and lay back, wishing for the umpteenth time that the situation were different. _If only we hadn't tripped up_, he thought, returning to the nighttime battle that had landed him in this predicament. _Bloody rogue, forgot about the wolves the squealers keep as pets and got pounced. That started it, and next thing you know…_

Jake sighed sadly, and he closed his eyes and shook his head a bit. _Damnit, Yarin, I wish I could have done more_, he thought mournfully, feeling a few tears forming in his eyes. _We should have listened to the lieutenant at Theramore, he warned us the Barrens would be death if we didn't travel in larger numbers, or at least had a priest or doctor along._

The sound of footfalls again intruded upon the landscape, and Jake recognized them from before. He opened his eyes and leaned up in his half-reclined position again, this time seeing the mounted Tauren and her wolf approach from the south. As before, she simply rode up to where she kept the large animals tied up, dismounted, and tied up the large, green and black striped raptor. Unlike before, she carried no wood, but instead there was a large carcass slung over the back of her mount, which the goggled female carried over to the far side of the camp and unceremoniously dumped it on the ground. "We shall eat well tonight," the huntress proclaimed, not looking at the human, but her raised voice was clearly intended for his ears. She promptly kneeled down following this announcement and took out a large knife from a pouch she wore on her belt.

Jake watched her work on the carcass for some time, having nothing else to do, other than glance to the Tauren's wolf pet from time to time, as it still unnervingly stared at him whenever it was unoccupied. It was twilight before long, and the Tauren finally stood up from the dressed carcass, and paused in surprise. "Na haraf ji'nalu, ne?" She asked herself, her voice quiet. She then shook her head and strung up the meat from the nearby tree in the last vestiges of the day. The rapidly darkening sky was slowly starting to show the first in the sea of stars upon the arching vault of the heavens when she finally finished and washed her hands with some water from a flask. By now, Jake was getting a bit nervous, as no fire had been made, and he was starting to hear some faint movement in the distance every now and then as the Barrens' nocturnal residents awoke from their slumber.

Finally, though, the Tauren reached into her toolbox and brought out something that Jake couldn't identify in the dim light. Soon he wished he could, as the huntress turned and walked over to him with the odd item in her hands. "Here," she said, kneeling down and offering a strange tubular device to the human. "This is a light, turn it on and point it at the fire pit so I can get the fire started."

"A… light?" Jake asked in unmoving surprise. His pause made the Tauren sigh, and she reached out and gently grabbed his right hand and brought it to rest on the cylinder. "Yes, it might be heavy, but you only need to hold it for a few minutes," she said, before pressing a switch on the device and a brilliant white light suddenly stretched out from one end of it. The sudden increase in light made Jake's eyes screw shut in pain, though they rapidly adjusted, and he opened them just as the Tauren released his hand and left him holding the heavy metal object. His arm wavered a bit, causing the beam to splay around wantonly until he finally remembered what she said, and brought his limb back under control and aimed the light towards the fire pit.

Jake watched on in a form of stunned silence, not having expected such a wondrous device from such an odd source. _I've heard about things like this, but it was mainly Gnomes working on them. How did a Tauren get her hands on one?_ Such were his thoughts as he absentmindedly watched the huntress set up a good fire. By the time the kindling was ignited, though, his arm was growing tired, and the light was shaking up and down by the time the Tauren stood back up and returned to the human, her body catching the light's beam, showing clearly the splatters of blood and ichors upon her; results of her recent activity. "Thank you," she said simply, taking the light from Jake's hand and turning it off, casting the camp back into the last gloom of twilight. "I hope that did not strain you?"

"I, er," Jake said, stuttering a bit and blushing slightly at her concern. _Thank the Light for the cover of darkness_, he thought, somewhat ironically. "I'm fine," he stated flatly, lying back down on the furs as he spoke. "Just a little tired, that's all."

"It is to be expected," the Tauren replied, turning away and moving back over to her gear to return the light and begin working on dinner. "You took many hits, much damage," she added as she took out the cooking utensils. "I had to use a lot of healing potions to mend your wounds to the point where you wouldn't bleed out."

Again, Jake felt his skin flush, and he shook his head slowly as he considered his next words carefully. After a few minutes of silence, he spoke. "While the subject has been brought up…" he began, but paused as he weighed his words and her possible responses.

"You want to know why I'm helping you," the huntress preempted him, not even looking up from where she was working on the fire. "Is that right?" She asked, glancing behind her to look at the human.

Jake frowned, the growing light of the fire illuminating his face well enough for her to see now, and he nodded. "Yes," he said cautiously. "I may be fresh from the Eastern Kingdoms, but I was given to believe that relations between the Horde and the Alliance were… strained, to say the very least."

The Tauren glanced back again, nodding once before turning back to the fire and the food. "Yes, that is true," she said simply, and then let the statement hang in the air for several minutes before she decided to continue again. "Many of my people and our allies would have left you out there to be killed. Others might have even jumped you had you managed to win against the vile quillboar," she said, her voice dropping a bit, even as she finished working the fire into the right shape and burn for cooking. "I, however, believe that there is no harm in helping others defend themselves from this world's horrors, even if some who need help are my enemies."

Silence fell over the camp as Jake thought about what the huntress said, and the Tauren worked on dinner. Time passed on quickly enough, and by unspoken arrangement the two remained quiet all throughout the meal and the rest of the night. That is, until Jake, half asleep, woke up to the sound of metal springs being stretched. Slowly, he half sat up again, wincing in pain for the umpteenth time, and looked around the camp, his night vision working with the dying firelight to give a murky view of the surroundings. He focused on the area the sound was coming from, and saw the odd shape of the Tauren kneeling on the ground and working on something. Jake waited until the huntress stood up before he spoke up. "May I ask, what are you doing?" He asked carefully, some of his caution from earlier evaporated in the face of encroaching sleep.

The Tauren didn't seem to mind, however, as her voice was even as she replied. "Setting traps," she answered. "For the night."

"Ah, I see," Jake said, and then laid back and closed his eyes as sleep began to pull him under. "G'night," he said quietly, not even realizing he spoke.

"You as well."

* * * *

The next morning dawned over the Barrens with startling alacrity, the sun's rays blazing through the dry air and touching all within the dusty lands where neither hill nor mountain impeded the light.

One of the places that were shielded was the camp Jake slowly woke up in. The cold morning air of the near desert was seeping next to his skin, causing more than enough discomfort to bring him out of his deep, restful sleep. He tried rising normally, until the pain of his arm and all over his body made itself felt, and he suddenly remembered where he was. _Right, right… Why am I cold?_ He leaned up again, this time more slowly and favoring his broken, weighted arm, and found out that the furs covering him had slipped off in the night. Carefully, he reached down with his good arm and dragged them back into place, once again covering him up properly. Jake sighed at that and lay back again, resting comfortably on the other furs beneath him.

_Wait, I didn't pull anything up to cover me,_ he realized, blinking a bit as his memory of last night - somewhat hazy but still serviceable – showed him that he had simply fallen asleep too fast to even think of such a thing. _But then, how-?_ The question was only half asked in his mind before he realized the answer, and he turned to look around the campsite for his host. He saw her lying on the ground on the opposite side of the fire, under a rather thick blanket made from several furs stitched together, her face turned towards the fire and consequently, to him. Jake noted that she was still asleep, her eyes closed peacefully, and that her wolf companion was curled up on top of her eight-foot frame, sleeping as well. For a moment, he was caught up in the tranquility of the scene, before he remembered that this Tauren was his enemy and that he shouldn't be admiring any setting that involved her being at some kind of peace.

And yet, his face burned as he remembered again the furs that now lay atop him. _How could such a person of consideration be an enemy?_ Jacob asked himself, feeling embarrassed at the conflict in his head between gratefulness and mistrust. _My duty and my training tells me that whenever possible, I should attempt to escape and/or kill her. Yet my honor and my upbringing only tell me that such consideration she's shown me is the mark of a civilized, moral person, and it should be rewarded in kind. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."_ Jake shook his head again, and then sighed as the two ideals warred within.

He lost track of time as he sat there pondering his self-quarrel, but soon enough the Tauren stirring from slumber drew him out of it. Jake turned and watched carefully as she yawned and sat up, forcing the wolf to wake up and crawl off. She was clad not in her armor, but only in a simple shirt and breeches that revealed her womanly shape more clearly than did mail, even while preserving her modesty. She looked around a bit before her eyes settled on the human, and Jake saw a brief moment of confusion in her green eyes before she blinked the last obfuscation of sleep away and recognition set in. "Da wa nay- I mean, good morning," she said, shaking her head a bit to clear out the cobwebs. "Sleep well?"

Again, Jacob felt embarrassment at her concern. "I did, yes," he said, simply. "Thank you for the covers."

The Tauren only shrugged and slowly stood up. "It was… Sensible, is that the right word?" She asked, looking to him again.

The blush on his face remained in full force as Jake felt odd being asked such an innocent question. "Yes, it fits rather well. There are other words you could use, but that one fits better than most."

The Tauren simply nodded to the human, and then turned to go about her morning ablutions, leaving Jake to once again sit in awkward silence as he watched her go about her business. Once, she walked away form the camp and over a small rise with nothing but her plain clothes on, confusing him momentarily before he finally came to realize that his bladder felt rather full. _Oh… Oh dear,_ Jake thought, wondering how he would take care of that while his arm was bound to the heavy metal rods keeping his bone in alignment as it healed.

* * * *

When she came back, Jake had rather circularly brought up his dilemma, which prompted a brief laugh from her that proved to only deepen his embarrassment. Still, she was unmocking as she managed to help the wounded warrior up and basically carried his arm in her right hand until they got to a tree over the other rise framing the camp. There the huntress propped the arm against the tree, causing Jacob pain, but he bit back any complaint as he'd rather suffer a few moments of pain than the eternal embarrassment of potentially damaging memory. The Tauren left him to his own devices for a time before he called her back and the two returned to camp to resume their usual positions.

_How odd to think of it as 'usual'_, Jake thought as he was lying down again on the furs, his stomach growling as his hostess cooked up breakfast. _Yet she stays over there, I stay over here. That's as close to 'usual' as you can get in this situation, I guess_.

Such ruminations were becoming more common in the warrior's head as the continued good behavior of the Tauren replaced the wariness and paranoia in his head with a slight form of trust – _as she pointed out, no sense in poisoning or wounding me after going to the trouble to rescue and heal me_ – and, inevitably, boredom. _Is this why patients in hospitals are so depressed? Is just the simple sitting and doing absolutely nothing, not even moving, more trying than the disease or wound they suffer from?_

"Here," the Tauren said, interrupting Jake's musings by speaking and handing him the same bowl from before. Jake blushed again, but only slightly, as he sheepishly took the offered dish. The two shared a silent breakfast, matching the quiet lunch and dinner past, with only the Tauren feeding her wolf the break from the self-enforced peace.

After breakfast was finished and the various implements cleaned and put away, the huntress came over to Jacob and kneeled down to again check his arm. Much to his surprise, Jake felt less pain than before, and the Tauren grunted approvingly. "Good, the healing potions are doing well," she said, standing up again and towering over the supine human. "They don't work as fast with such a bad injury, but it will only be a few days until your body is fully healed."

Jake released a sigh of relief upon hearing that. "I thank you," he said, finally admitting expressing his gratitude. "For everything. You've done so much for me, even though we are nameless enemies."

The Tauren waved him off with a three-fingered hand. "I did nothing that was not uncalled for," she said, firmly.

"Still, taking in someone from the Alliance, who may have…" Jacob halted himself as he realized what he was about to say might be inappropriate, and even insulting.

"…Who may have killed me some other time?" The Tauren asked, giving him a teasing look. Jacob blushed at that, and she continued before he could reply. "I may be helping you, but I am not ignorant of the strain between our peoples. I am not so foolish as to think that the tension between the Horde and Alliance is merely constrained to foul words and insults; I have seen far worse," she added, her tone growing dark and menacing, though her focus drifted off into a distant stare that did not include the human at her feet. Still, Jacob shuddered slightly, realizing that this person before him undoubtedly had fought in a skirmish or two with Alliance soldiers. "For what it is worth," the human began slowly, drawing her attention back to him, and he carefully weighed his words. "After this… I don't think I could fight the Horde with a clear conscience," he added, feeling the truth of the matter even as he spoke the words. "Once I am healed and we part ways, I think I will head back to Kul Tiras."

The Tauren raised an eyebrow, and she smirked slightly. "Oh? Who says I'm going to leave you alone once you're healed?"

Her words made Jacob's blood freeze in his veins, and his breath caught in his chest. The paranoia and suspicion from earlier came back full force, and he narrowed his eyes and moved them around, looking over the immediate area for some sort of weapon. "Why would you not?" He asked, slowly, carefully, while simultaneously wondering what dungeon beneath Orgrimmar awaited him.

The soft chuckle from the Tauren bade him look up, and he found a smile on her muzzle. "You want to go home, right?" She asked. Jacob felt his blood go from flash frozen to boiling in a second as he thought she was taunting him. "Of course I do," he snapped.

She seemed not to notice. "Well, human, you're alone, out of provisions, lack a mount, and don't know where you are in a land that is only a year's drought away from becoming a desert," she said, smiling almost sweetly as she leaned over the warrior, looking down on him. "I don't suppose you know how to hunt the local animals, do you? Know where to get water? Which plants are edible or not?"

As she spoke, Jacob became more and more aware of his own helplessness in the situation, and he could have sworn that the blush on his face would become permanent. "I… I suppose I do not," he said, carefully.

"And that is why I shall be going with you," the huntress said, standing back upright, still smiling as Jake blinked in confusion. "I will take you to Northwatch Hold, an Alliance strongpoint a few days' travel from here. From there you can take one of the supply caravans to Theramore Isle, and I can be happy to know that my help was not wasted on someone with foolish pride who would rather wander off into the Barrens alone and unprepared and die."

_Is there any blood left in the rest of my body?_ Jacob asked himself as his face continued to burn hotly. Yet underneath his embarrassment and lingering fear, he found the same gratitude from before, only now grown. "I… Thank you," he said, carefully. "There are some back home who would not do as much as you have done so far, and yet you are willing to go far out of your way besides. Yet I am struck that at any other time, we would not even exchange words and attempt to destroy one another in nameless hatred."

"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?" The Tauren asked, and Jacob was struck silent for a few moments by the profound wisdom in those words. "I… I suppose you're right," he admitted, and even managed a sheepish grin. The Tauren returned the grin before she turned and walked back over to here most of her stuff was set up. "I am glad you see reason," she said, sitting down heavily on her sleeping mat facing back to the human. "That is a desired trait in any traveling companion."

Again, Jacob found the wisdom in her words, and marveled at the situation as the incongruous nature of it struck home. _Never in a thousand years could I imagine something like this_, the warrior thought. Eventually, he came out of his introspection, and managed to smile a bit. "Well, if we are to be traveling companions, then perhaps we should exchange names?"

The Tauren sat still for a moment in genuine surprise, and then laughed a bit. "I suppose that would be good, yes," she said, herself sheepish for a change. "I am a hunter of the wilds, so I am not used to talking; I forget such pleasantries, forgive me."

"Of course," Jacob replied, smiling a bit broader now that he saw the other wasn't quite infallible. "I'm Jacob, son of Martin the cooper, from August Point in Kul Tiras. I am trained in the martial arts of close combat."

"A pleasure," the woman said. "I am Tohopekaliga, of the Starchaser clan. I come from Thunder Bluff and am trained in the art of marksmanship and wilderness survival; what many call a 'hunter.'"

"Likewise, a pleasure," Jacob replied, and he nodded appreciatively. "Your mastery of my native tongue, while not perfect, astounds me. If I may be so bold, where did you learn it?"

"You may be so bold, but I need not answer," Tohopekaliga replied, grinning a bit. "Let me just say, there are persons in both the Horde and Alliance who are less concerned with current hatreds, and more concerned with ensuring a peaceful future. One taught my father how to speak Common, and later I learned from him as well."

"I see," Jacob said, and decided to leave it at that. _For now_, he mentally added. "Well, Toho… top… a-kila?" He said, realizing he was getting her name wrong.

Tohopekaliga chuckled. "Toe-ho-peck-ah-lee-ga," she said somewhat more slowly, dragging out the syllables. "But it is not an easy name for most, even amongst my people, so you may simply call me Toho."

Jacob nodded appreciatively. "Well Toho, you may call me Jake."

"Jake," Toho said, and then nodded at the name. "Well Jacob, or Jake, I have a feeling this shall be an interesting journey."

"I don't doubt that for a second."


	2. Chapter 2

The days passed surprisingly easily, or so it seemed to Jacob. Despite his lingering misgivings about the nature of his rescuer, the warrior continued to warm up to the tauren. _Although perhaps that is born more out of necessity than anything else_, the human thought as he sat on the furs that'd been his bed for four days now. At the moment, he was waiting for Tohopekaliga to return from her latest foray into the wilderness, looking for another game animal to restock the provisions. He glanced down to his arm, which if the huntress' prediction held true, would be healed within the hour. _I can't wait to have these metal rods taken off so I can move around like normal again_.

The human sighed and looked up and around the camp, noting how much it had changed recently; Toho had been packing up her supplies, loading them on the kodo and some on her raptor mount, though the latter she was keeping lightly burdened until they were to leave so as to avoid wearing it out. _I guess it's something of a high performance mount_, Jacob mused, wondering exactly where she had gotten the beast. _She _has_ been rather secretive about her own history, while asking a lot of questions about mine… Of course, it's not like I've been forthcoming with a lot of details, either._ Despite the level of trust the two had built up, they were still from two different peoples, on opposite sides of a cold war that seemingly inched closer to boiling over as time went on. As a result, they spent a lot of time talking about minor, unimportant things, when they talked at all; a large part of any given day was spent in relative silence, letting both man and tauren time to think.

Jacob's reverie we broken by the sound of incoming movement, and he tensed up only briefly before he recognized the distinctive strides of Toho's raptor mount and that of her wolf companion. _Another reason I'll be glad to be mobile again: I can defend myself, or at least run_.

The tauren huntress pulled her mount around the low rise behind which she had approached the camp, and coaxed the large, mottled, green-skinned raptor to a stop next to where the kodo remained tied up. As she went about dismounting and tying up the animal, Jacob looked at the large bundle that was sitting on the beast of burden's back, and was surprised to see that not only had Toho already butchered the animal and only returned with the meat, but also she had brought back a large, dusty looking bag as well. Curious, Jacob nevertheless held his tongue until the huntress had finished putting away the various implements she used – a long rifle, ammunition pouch, and a huge two-handed sword, just for starters – and the stores of meat she had gone out to gather. She then pulled the large bundle off the back of her mount and carried the bulky, heavy-looking package near to Jacob, whereupon she laid it on the ground and then turned her attention to the human. "How are you feeling?" She asked.

"Pretty good, actually," Jacob replied, his voice a bit distracted as he eyed the package suspiciously. Toho noted his divided attention, and chuckled slightly. "I'll explain that thing in a moment. Right now, let me check your arm."

Jacob frowned slightly, but he nodded his acquiescence, and remained silent and still as the tauren moved over to his left side and once again kneeled to probe and test his arm. To his satisfaction and relief, there was little discomfort beyond that which someone would normally experience as a result of being prodded, and Jacob reported this.

"Excellent," Tohopekaliga replied, and then began to work on the bindings over Jacob's arm. "Sounds like these can come off now."

"Thank the Light for that," Jake said, and then smiled sheepishly when the Tauren shot him a smirk. "And you, of course."

"Of course," Toho replied with a smile as she returned to her task, and soon enough Jacob felt the bars' weight release from his arm, and very slowly, he moved it up and drew it close to him, where he felt it himself with his right hand. "This is simply astounding," he said quietly.

"I guess you've not been out much, eh?" The huntress asked, prompting the human to look up. "When you're out in the world, doing missions and exploring, you generally get hurt, and potions are oftentimes an adventurer's best friend."

"I see," Jacob replied, nodding a bit. "Well, no, as I told you while we've been talking, I haven't exactly been gone from home very long."

"Yes, I remember," Toho acknowledged, and then stood up and offered her hand to the human. Jacob, however, simply stood up by himself in an attempt to retain some pride and self-confidence. He gave her an appreciative nod, though, which she returned. "Well, aside from the lack of clothes or gear, I feel a lot better," Jake said in a slightly sardonic tone.

Tohopekaliga smiled a bit at that. "Well, I might have something that can help with that," she said, and then walked around the human to where she had left the mysterious bundle. "I took some time from my hunt this morning and looked for a site where an old Orc supply caravan was ambushed by Centaur some time ago and got you some things," she explained, kneeling again to reach down and open the pack. Before Jacob could speak, she unrolled the bundle, revealing a set of chainmail armor, a sword, and a shield.

Jacob's eyes widened a bit. "You got those for me?" He asked in surprise, not expecting his hostess to arm him as well. A nod from the tauren's head confirmed her earlier words. "The Barrens is a tough place, as you have learned. Without even this paltry equipment, you would be a liability. At least now, you can hold your own should a fight come about."

The warrior glanced to the tauren, and for a moment was stricken by the oddness of the fact that, even though she kneeled, he could look her in the eyes quite easily. _Man, she is tall_, he thought briefly, before shaking his head a bit to get his mind back on track. "Well, no matter what condition it's in, I appreciate it," he said, and then moved over to kneel himself next to the equipment.

The various pieces of armor – torso covering shirt, long pants, boots, and bulky gloves, all made of mail – were in a fairly poor condition, but Jacob had experience with second-rate equipment from his training in Kul Tiras, and he soon determined that, while the armor might give out sooner than newer sets, it would still hold up decently well in a fight. _And considerably better than my bare skin and cloth_, Jake thought as he turned to examine the other equipment: a sword and shield. Both were, like the mail, of Horde design, looking rather unrefined and questionable. However, Jacob revised his assessment when he picked up both items and hefted them, feeling their considerable weight. "They're a lot bigger than I'm used to," he mentioned almost casually.

"They were made for Orcs, after all," Toho replied evenly. "Still, I've seen Alliance soldiers carrying captured Horde weapons before, and much larger than these besides; I think you will be able to handle them."

"Oh, of course I can," Jacob said almost teasingly, glancing up to the tauren on his left. "Just it might take a bit of getting used to, since it's made for someone bigger than myself. Speaking of which, about the armor…?"

"I'm sure it will fit well enough," Toho replied, standing up fully. "Most armor made by the Horde or Alliance these days can be adjusted so it can be worn by a variety of peoples, given how varied all the races are."

"Hmm," Jacob replied, and then set the shield down so he could concentrate on the sword. Standing, he hefted it in his right arm and gave a couple of test swings. The jagged blade was indeed a bit heavier than he was used to, though after a second's thought the human decided this wasn't entirely bad. _I won't be able to finesse as much, but the added weight will make my hacks and slashes more powerful_, he mused, and then turned his attention to the shield. It was a simple design, round, made of heavy hardwood backed by cloth to prevent splinters from spalling off and into the wielder's face should a sufficient force strike it. An orc would have found it on the small side, something useful for those who preferred maneuver, but for Jacob the weight and size of the buckler made it almost a proper mid-sized shield. "Yes, these will do nicely," he finally pronounced.

"I am glad to hear it," Toho interjected, and then moved over to the bundle and toed it lightly with her left hoof. "Underneath the armor are some clothes, leather and cloth, to help make the mail more comfortable to wear."

The human warrior gave the tauren a smile and a nod. "I'm glad you remembered that; you'd be surprised how many people think the armor itself is all warriors wear."

"Goodness, no," Toho replied, chuckling. "You think I wear nothing under this armor? The metal links would rip out my fur and bite my skin if I didn't."

"Indeed," Jacob said, and then laid the weapon and shield down. "Well then, I suppose there's no need to dally further; shall I help you pack the last of your stuff?"

Toho smiled and nodded politely. "I would appreciate it. However, let us both eat lunch first to gather strength."

"Sounds good."

Jacob hopped down from the kodo carefully, pausing upon reaching solid ground. "By the Light, I needed that," he said after a long and luxurious stretch of his back and legs and even his arms.

A soft chuckle from nearby turned his attention to Tohopekaliga as she climbed off of her raptor mount. "I would heartily agree," she said, as she too began to stretch her body out in the sinewy ways women of all races possessed. "Even with all the travel I've seen, long hours in the saddle never get any easier to endure."

"Almost makes me glad I walked out here, then," Jacob replied lightheartedly, eliciting another chuckle from the tauren. The human felt a brief pang of sorrow for his dead companions, but he managed to push it aside, having used his convalescence and the last two days of riding to think long and hard about the past. _I can't punish myself for living_, Jacob thought as he turned and went to unload a few bags from the creature he'd been riding. _It won't help anyone, and it certainly would be harmful to me and even to Toho, given that kind of self-pitying makes one too distracted to be of use in the wilderness_.

_Speaking of which…_ Jacob roused himself from his introspection and took a long, hard look around the tree-shaded area the pair of travelers had stopped at for a rest during the hottest part of the day. Like much of the Barrens, it was principally dry savanna with more than enough rocky ravines and hills to break up the monotony, but those same features also made ambushes possible. _And there are worse things than quillboar out here_.

He saw nothing he could identify as a threat, however, and a glance over to the tauren revealed her unconcerned. _Toho seems to know her way out here, and she doesn't look worried, so I guess I should relax a bit_, Jacob told himself as he set a small supply bag down on the ground. He then pushed his worries out of his mind as the two travelers worked to lay out a pair of bedrolls to sit on and unlimbered their weapons, placing them carefully nearby in case they needed to be rapidly drawn. _"It's one thing not to needlessly worry,"_ a memory from training spoke in the human's mind. _"It's an entirely other thing to be careless."_

Jacob smirked to himself slightly as he sat down and rummaged in his pack for a canteen and some jerky, and he gave a silent prayer of thanks that it was actually _his_ pack; Toho had salvaged some equipment from the scene of the quillboar fight and so had managed to recover a couple of bags and, fortunately, Jacob's identification papers and coin purse. _I don't think she even opened the strings on the latter_, the human thought as he took a long pull of warm water from the canteen. _There are lots of people back home who'd take advantage of that, and we're supposed to be on the same side._ Once again the unassuming nobility of the tauren struck him, and he marveled at the situation he found himself in.

Time passed slowly as the heat of the day began to climb from uncomfortable to oppressive, and Jacob found himself wishing he could toss off his armor. Prudence checked him, as did pride; Tohopekaliga kept her heavy mail armor on as well. This observation sparked a question, though, and Jacob felt it was a good as time as any to voice it. "If I may ask," he began, eyeing the tauren warily as she turned her head to match his gaze. "How can you stand this heat? You've got that fur all over you, isn't that like wearing a coat?"

Toho chuckled slightly at that. "Not really, it's a thin coat," she said, and then held up an arm and ran her other hand against the exposed portion, showing by example. "Besides, my people have lived on this land for countless generations; we are used to it," she added.

Jacob frowned slightly. "I thought the tauren lived in Mulgore?" He asked, thinking back to the various tidbits of information he had received on his way to Kalimdor.

"Now we do, yes," Toho said, leaning back against the trunk of the tree they took refuge under. "But for many years Mulgore belonged to the centaur, our hated enemies. It was only after the orcs arrived from the east and helped us that we finally claimed the golden plains as our own."

Jacob's face darkened a bit at the mention of his homeland's hated enemy. "I'm surprised they didn't just keep it for themselves," he muttered.

Toho frowned back at the human, and then shook her head. "I know you humans have a long history with the orcs and their old Horde, but I assure you, they are not like that anymore," she said, and then sighed. "Which brings up something I have been meaning to speak to you about."

The sudden change of topic made Jacob wary, and he had to fight his instinct to tense up. "Oh?" He asked, cautiously. "And what is that?"

"If the rest of today's ride will go as planned, then by night we will be near the farm of a friend of mine," Toho replied, and then nodded as Jacob's face lit up in understanding. "Yes, he is an orc. An old one, too: he has told tales of fighting the Alliance during the First and Second wars. Nevertheless, he is an honorable person, and I had hoped we would spend the night in his house before making the final run towards Northwatch."

The human sat still, his face contorted in disbelief as his mind struggled to absorb the concept of staying the night at the home of a sworn enemy. _But aren't the tauren supposed to be a sworn enemy?_ A voice inside him asked. _Yet this one helps you in ways many humans wouldn't._

_Yes, but she's not an _orc_ for Light's sake_, he answered back. _Those disgusting apes killed so many humans that it took the Alliance decades to recover._ "I'm not sure I can do that," Jacob said, temporizing as he struggled with conflicting thoughts. "You don't know how many they killed, how a whole generation grew up without fathers or brothers, living in fear that the orcs would come to slaughter us all, as they did to thousands when they razed Stormwind to the ground." He paused then, to reign in the anger in his voice and shake his head. "To ask me to share space with one without intending to kill it is like asking you to do the same with a centaur."

Silence fell across the pair as Jacob finished speaking, and it grew uncomfortable for the human as Toho just seemed to stare at him. Finally, she closed her eyes and sighed, reaching up with her hand to rub the top of her muzzle. "It would almost be funny, you know, if it weren't so sad," she said.

"What?" Jacob asked, baffled at her words. "What do you mean?"

Toho opened her eyes and looked sadly at him. "How much your two races are alike, really. Both of you have fought each other, one on one in the First war, with allies in the Second. You both won a war against the other, first the Horde, then the Alliance, and you both are so obsessed with the losses, obsessed with your sorrow that you cannot see how those wars hurt you both equally. Humanity lost one of their greatest kingdoms and was nearly wiped out. The orcs were cut down like blades of grass and held captive, or as slaves, for decades after their loss.

"Your two peoples have been so egregiously violent and intolerable to one another that you don't realize how similar you are, in spirit and determination, and how tragic it is that you are not allies. Such a pairing would be nearly unstoppable, yet your history of belligerence prevents you from recognizing that there is no real reason to fight one another at all."

Jacob leaned back, mentally reeling from Toho's impassioned words. "Of course we have to fight!" He retorted, falling back on childhood prejudices. "They invaded _us_, they attacked _us_ without provocation."

"While under the influence and control of the demons of the Burning Legion," Toho countered evenly. "Even the Alliance has heard of this by now, I know. The orcs were manipulated, controlled, and warped with vile magic from peaceful villagers to savage warriors, and then aimed straight at humanity by Sargeras."

Jacob glowered at that, but remained undaunted. "I have heard the story, though I am not sure I believe it," he said, shaking his head. "Even if it is true, they still did terrible things to my people."

"As yours did to them when the tables were turned," Toho countered.

"You weren't there," Jacob snapped. "Your people never saw them as the killing machines they were."

Toho waited a moment, and then sighed. "No, we weren't," she admitted, and then tilted her head a bit. "But perhaps that is why we can stand back, and look at what happened with eyes unclouded by hate. My people saw that the orcs were desperately trying to shed the sins of their past and build a new future free from the taint of demons. We also see that you humans can be just as cruel as any orc, but also have within you an indomitable stubbornness that reminds us of the orcs, as well as ourselves." Toho paused then to let her words sink in, before she continued. "As I said, it is a tragedy that the Horde and Alliance are not friends, for together our peoples did what no other world has ever done: held off and defeated the Burning Legion.

"Yet here you are, still hating, still pining for a chance to kill more orcs," she added, and then shook your head. "How is that any different than how they acted when they invaded Azeroth?"

Jacob opened his mouth, but his mind came up blank as he tried to formulate a response. He just sat there quietly as a growing feeling of emptiness seemed to well up within him. Finally, he just shook his head briefly and then looked away.

"That's what I thought," Toho said, and then turned to reach into her pack for her canteen. "We'll be staying overnight at the home of my friend Gratan. If you wish to argue with him, I only ask that you try to keep from directly insulting him or his people; I get very cranky when I am thrown out of a warm place to sleep."

The remainder of the ride was spent in a silence more profound than any the two had shared in their brief time together. Jacob had fumed at first, but then found himself moving deeper and deeper into introspective thought. _Is she right?_ He asked himself for the thousandth time as the sun lowered towards the western horizon. Toho's words had struck a chord deep in his soul, and Jacob had begun to uncomfortably find similarities between orcs and humans. And, most disturbingly, between modern humanity's hatred of orcs and the orcs' original burning desire to destroy humanity. _Are we treading down such a path that would leave us so wretched?_

So deep in his thoughts that he didn't notice the pair had arrived at their destination until the kodo, following Toho's ravasaur, slowed to a stop. Jacob blinked his eyes, realizing that it had gotten quite dark. His sight then alighted on a round hovel in front of him, at the door of which stood a large, menacing figure that made a chill run down the human's spine. Tohopekaliga, though, simply climbed off of her mount and casually walked up to the orc. _Easy enough for her to do when she's even taller than he is_, Jacob noted.

The two conversed in Orcish for a bit, at first greeting each other warmly, before the Orc turned his look at the human and began to seemingly question the tauren in a harsh tone. Toho answered him back evenly, using the same voice she has used with Jacob earlier, being equally patient as the conversation wore on. Jacob shifted uneasily in the kodo's saddle every time the orc looked at him, as the disgust in the Hordesman's gaze could almost be physically felt. Finally, Gratan threw up his arms and gave a few quick utterances before turning and storming back into his hut.

Jacob worried for a moment, wondering how Toho and himself would find a decent campsite in the rapidly falling dark. But the tauren simply turned around and walked over to him. "I managed to talk him into it. He is a crusty old orc, but he knows honor," she said, as she began to take bags off of the kodo's harness. "Just stay in a corner or something and try not to speak. He knows enough Common to understand if you're talking about him."

"Duly noted," Jacob replied dryly as he hopped off of the flat-footed reptile and began to assist the tauren with unloading the beast of burden, before helping to carry the various belongings into the small hovel, though for the latter Jacob wisely waited until Toho headed in that direction and followed close behind her before entering the stone hut.

The inside, he saw, was simply furnished, having only a single short table, a small fireplace/cooking stove in the middle of the single-room building, and a bed made out of a stone slab. The latter made Jacob do a double take, which garnered a scoff from the old orc watching from the opposite side of the room where he and Toho were laying their gear down. Jacob blushed slightly at the verbal gesture, but he remembered Toho's words and kept his peace.

It took several trips and some work from both travelers, but they quickly had the animals unloaded and furs and bedrolls laid out to sleep on, as well as stripped off their armor and weapons for comfort. Gratan had cooked a simple dinner of stew for the three of them, though he was visibly irritated at having to hand a bowl and spoon to the human. For his part Jacob kept silent and tried not to stare at the orc the whole time he had been in the hovel, hoping that he could avoid any unnecessary interactions an thus any prospect of a confrontation.

After dinner, however, his luck ran out as Toho stood, spoke with Gratan in Orcish, and then turned to Jacob. "I need to take care of some things outside, but I will be back soon."

Jacob shifted uncomfortably, feeling the lack of armor acutely now. "About how long are we talking about?" He asked, glancing over to Gratan.

Toho didn't miss the look. "He won't hurt you," she said, and then paused to smirk. "At least, not much," she added, turning to leave the hovel. Jacob watched her go with some trepidation and this only grew as the heavy wooden door closed.

The room became deathly silent then, save for the crackling of the fire in its place and the breathing of two beings. A snort from the other side of the hut sounded, and Jacob steeled himself before turning to look at the orc sitting across the fire from him.

Gratan gave the human a long, hard look, one that Jacob swore drove down to his bones. "To think, we lost to you," the orc grunted out in heavily accented Common. "Look at you, sitting, cowed when your protector leaves."

Despite the situation, Jacob felt his hackles rise, and his visage hardened. "Where I come from, it is usually respectful to avoid arguing with a host," he said, measuring his voice carefully. "I am inclined to follow that tradition, even here."

"A weak excuse from a weak speck," the orc countered, grunting disdainfully. "She said you were a warrior, but warriors stand. You just sit there like child, afraid to say something or its mother will take away sweets."

Jacob's face burned at that, and despite himself, he stood. The orc stood as well, and the foot he had over the human bade Jacob to pause for a moment, but he soon pressed on. "Now you listen here, greenskin," he snapped out. "For what it's worth I don't like you anymore than you like me, and frankly, if you want a fight, I would normally be happy to give you one. But I made a promise, gave my word to Toho that I would avoid such a fight with you. If you take that as a sign of weakness, then maybe you should reevaluate your concept of honor."

Gratan's face darkened as he blushed profusely, and his fists clenched in rage. Yet, a moment later, something seemed to click in his mind, and he regained a sense of control. "Honor, yes," he said, and then gave the human another appraising look. "At least you understand that much."

Jacob gave the orc what some would call the 'skunk eye', but held his peace and sat down. Gratan did as well, but he continued to speak. "So you know the form of honor," he said, spitting the human with a harsh stare. "But do you know the spirit of it?"

Jacob was taken aback at the unexpected question. "I do not know what you mean by that," he said cautiously, returning the orc's hard look.

"You have the words of honor, but do you know what it is to feel it, to know it so well that words are not necessary?" Gratan asked, his voice condescending, yet beneath it Jacob could make out a slight note of genuine curiosity. The orc narrowed his eyes a bit before continuing. "Have you had honor tested on the field of battle?"

The human frowned a bit before he replied. "I've fought quillboar and some bandits before," he began, but Gratan just shook his head. "No. Not what I mean," he said, and then surprisingly to Jacob, sighed. "Toho is good friend. You might be good enough in fight, or you might not be. I would fight you to see, but she made me promise too not to do so," the old orc explained, standing up and moving over to the fur-covered, stone bed. "Don't get her killed. Else I come for you. Understand, yes?" He asked, sitting down and again giving Jacob a hard stare.

For a moment, Jacob was surprised at the sudden concern in the other being's voice. Soon enough, however, he returned the stare, and then nodded. "I owe her my life. If she dies, it will only be after I have already fallen."

Gratan thought on that for a moment, and then grunted and lay back on his bed. "Good enough, for now." He said, and then seemed to fall promptly asleep.

Jacob blinked a few times as he tried to wrap his mind around the events of the last few minutes. _What just happened here?_ He asked himself, wondering how the conversation had not ended up as a knockdown, drag-out brawl. _Was he… Was he actually concerned for Toho?_ Jacob thought, bewildered. _I've never heard of an orc considering anyone but themselves. The stories from the first two wars always told of their backstabbing and careless disdain of their own wounded._ He glanced over at the sleeping orc, and a thought sprung up in his mind: _Is Toho right? Are they truly different now?_

He pondered this question for some time, breaking from his reverie only when the door to the hovel started to open. Scarcely had it begun to move before Jacob was up in a kneeling position, his sword already picked up from the equipment pile nearest to his bedding. Across the room, too, Gratan had awakened and had somehow produced a massive two-handed axe seemingly from nowhere, holding it at the ready.

Both beings relaxed quickly enough, though, as the door finished opening and Toho moved in, turning to close and bar the thick wooden barrier. She turned in time to see the two males putting their weapons away, and her characteristic smirk crossed her muzzle. "Glad to see both of you are on your guard," she said, walking over to her bedding. "I can sleep easier tonight knowing I have to paranoid warriors ready to stab the first digrat that comes under the door."

Gratan scoffed as he laid his axe in the small, hidden shelf behind his bed and promptly lay back down to sleep. Jacob just took in a long, deep breath to calm himself, and he gave the tauren woman a look. "You were gone for a bit," he said. "Any touble?"

"None," Toho said, laying down herself. "Just saying some prayers."

"To your ancestors?" Jacob asked, knowing that aspect of shamanistic religions, at least.

"Something like that," she replied, and then yawned. "Now get some sleep. We can make it close to Northwatch Hold tomorrow if we start early and ride hard. You'll need your rest to walk the last bit in."

Jacob nodded for a bit, having already agreed beforehand that it was best for the tauren not to be seen by the alliance soldiery at the keep. "Alright, then," he said, laying down. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight."


	3. Chapter 3

Jacob's sleep that night was awash with dark and disturbing dreams that left him weary as morning broke and he and the others awakened to the new day. He tried his best to ignore the gloomy imagery as much as possible as they all went about their morning activities, but after breakfast, while loading up their mounts, the tauren spoke up. "You seem disturbed, Jake," she said as he was tying a bag to the kodo's harness. "Are you alright?"

He stopped what he was doing for a moment, blushing slightly at the question. "I'm fine, Toho," Jacob replied, glancing over to the tauren. "I just didn't sleep well last night." He managed to smile briefly then. "But thank you for asking."

Tohopekaliga nodded to him, but the worry in her eyes told of how she didn't fully believe him. "Of course," she said, and then smirked slightly herself. "I wouldn't want you to have an issue crop up now, when we're close to getting you to safety."

"Heh," Jacob chuckled briefly. "Well, we'll just have to be careful then."

"Indeed."

* * *

The ride was faster than their earlier travels, seeing as Tohopekaliga had decided to leave most of her baggage behind at Gratan's hut, considering the overnight campout in the wilderness she'd need to make before returning to be an acceptable, if brief, inconvenience without her sundries. Unhindered by the extra weight the two travelers pushed their respective animals to higher speeds. Jacob in particular was surprised at how fast the kodo he rode could go when it felt like it. _Not quite as fast as Toho's raptor could go, I'm sure_, he thought as the tauren led them into a narrow pass between two good-sized hills. _But this lizard can easily keep up with most horses from back home, I'd wager._

The warrior's thoughts drifted off then as Toho held up her arm ahead to signal to slow down. Jacob managed to bring the ungainly kodo to a more sedate speed, which it almost seemed to resent. He didn't have time to dwell on that, however, as the tauren huntress slowed her raptor enough to pull alongside his mount before matching speed. "After the bend ahead, we stop and dismount," she said without preamble. "Northwatch is a ways beyond this pass, but you can see it from the far end. You should be there by dark."

Jacob nodded his understanding, not quite trusting himself to be able to talk while the kodo still bounded; it's unusual gait was far more pronounced at speed than the leisurely travel of the past week. Thus, he was glad to bring the creature to a stop alongside Toho's mount following the bend in the pass. The pair dismounted easily, and while Toho took the opportunity to tie both beasts of burden up to a large rock formation, Jacob took a long look around the pass, but saw nothing more than the same rocks and dirt and scrub and occasional tree that gave the Barrens its name. Down the pass, he could see the ground dropped away, and beyond that, his eyes alighted upon a blue haze darker than the sky, and his heart beat faster for a moment as he recognized the ocean.

"Okay, done," Tohopekaliga said, starting the human slightly before he turned around to face the tauren. "I see you've sighted the Great Sea," she said, smiling faintly, though her eyes remained hidden behind her goggles. "Northwatch is next to it, lower than the pass. It should be an easy time for you to walk down," Toho continued as she retrieved her weapons and a few items for her belt from a saddlebag.

"Sounds good," Jacob replied, moving to gather up the sword and shield Toho had found for him. Although he hadn't used them, and doubted he would so close to a human settlement, he nevertheless felt better traversing the wilderness with them. _Especially after what happened to get me in this position_, he thought darkly as he grabbed his backpack and flung it over a shoulder, letting the bag bounce on the shield strapped to his back. "So what will you be doing, then?" He asked as they set out walking towards the end of the pass. "I thought you were just going to let me loose and go on your way?"

Tohopekaliga shook her head. "As I said before, I did not save you to let you perish later. While Northwatch is pretty secure, pirates and occasionally mercenaries from Ratchet make attacks against it to keep the Alliance guards from ranging too far afield. If you are caught in one of those fights, I want to make sure you have a little help," she said, and then patted the long rifle she held in one large hand with the other.

Jacob raised an eyebrow at that. "I wouldn't think a gun, even a rifle, could be too accurate at a great distance. Unless the hold is only a few hundred yards away?"

"Further than that," Toho replied. "And while you would be surprised at the range and accuracy a good firearm can bring, I admit I cannot quite pick off individuals all the way from the pass to the walls of the hold." She shrugged, tossing her head a bit to shake one of her hair tails off of her shoulder pads. "But if there is such a fight, the hold guards will be too busy fighting it to notice a single tauren closing in just enough to pick off bandits."

"I see," Jacob said, nodding. Then he frowned as something she said clicked in his head. "Why would mercenaries from Ratchet attack the hold, though?"

Surprisingly, Toho sighed in frustration. "The cannoneers and commanders of Northwatch have started to get… paranoid," she said. "They've started firing at innocent merchant ships heading for Ratchet, even ones flying under a neutral flag. Understandably, the people in Ratchet don't like their business being bothered, so they send out parties every once in a while to try and get the Alliance to stop shooting things that aren't attacking them, usually by sabotage or raids. Unfortunately, though, this makes the guards _more_ nervous, and thus they fire on anything threatening."

Jacob groaned slightly at that, and rubbed his forehead with his free hand. "Why is it whenever the world starts to make sense, it goes and gives me something that makes me question my sanity?"

Toho chuckled heartily at that as the pair approached the end of the pass. "If you ever find an answer to that, let me know, for I've asked that question myself more than once."

Jacob didn't answer that, as they had finally moved out from behind the hill to his right, and he stopped to take in the scene before him. Ahead, the land sloped down at a moderate angle until a good two miles out it flattened just before reaching the sea, forming a fairly narrow but not insubstantial beaches and rocky coastlines. Trees, specifically palms, were more common there, providing a nice green contrast to the ordinarily drab colors of the Barrens. So, too, did Northwatch Hold, sitting off towards the right, situated between the ocean, the coastal flats, and a ridgeline behind it that looked too steep to climb, providing a secure defensive position that Jacob immediately recognized.

"Wow," Jacob muttered. "What a view."

"It's nice, isn't it?" Toho asked, stepping beside the human. "Sometimes we forget to look at the world, and instead look through it to our problems. But every once in a while, you get a moment like this, where you can just stop and _see_." She paused then and sighed. "It is those moments I cherish, and why I love to travel."

"Aye," Jacob said, unable to think of anything more poignant to say. After a few moments, though, he managed to gather his wits, and he took in a deep breath before turning to face the tauren. "Well, I suppose this is where we say goodbye."

"Indeed," Toho replied, facing the human and nodding. "It has been a pleasure meeting you, Jacob," she said.

"Likewise, Tohopekaliga," Jacob said, smiling as Toho nodded at the proper pronunciation of her name. He then held out a hand, and after a moment, she reached out and took it. "Thank you for your help, and of course, for saving my life. I won't forget it, and I don't think I'll forget you, either."

Toho smiled at that, and Jacob could have sworn she blushed a little. "I appreciate that. Take care, and think on what I told you about us in the Horde."

"I shall," Jacob replied, and then broke the handshake. He started to turn to head towards the distant hold, but a familiar noise made him freeze. Tohopekaliga heard it as well, and they both looked back along the pass they had traveled down. There they saw a band of Alliance soldiers racing towards them on horseback from the same direction they had come.

Tohopekaliga muttered something in her native tongue, which even through the language barrier Jacob understood it as a foul curse. She then started to unlimber her rifle, and glanced to the human. "You should run; they might be too concerned with me to chase you down."

"Wait, what?" Jacob asked, stunned. "I'm human."

"Yes but they've seen you standing and shaking hands with a tauren, do you think they believe you to be a lost traveler or a double-agent now?" She asked acidly, raising the ranged weapon up to her shoulder and took aim.

Jacob reached up and grabbed the barrel, yanking the weapon down. Toho turned to him and, despite the goggles, gave him a glare capable of melting ice. "What are you doing?" She demanded.

"I'm not going to let you kill Alliance, any more than _you_ would stand still and let me slay Horde," Jacob retorted, his expression firm. "Especially after you lectured me the other day about trying not to resort to old habits. You want me to believe the Horde is different now, then act like it."

Toho clenched her jaw at that, and her whole face tightened in anger and frustration. Nevertheless, she slowly brought down her long rifle and relaxed from a combat stance. "Then what would you have me do?" She gratingly asked as the patrol rode near and began to spread out, clearly intending to surround the pair of travelers.

"You've helped me, now let me try to help you," Jacob replied, warily watching as the Alliance troops slowed in their approach. "It's time for you to trust me now, okay?" He asked with a glance at the tauren.

Toho frowned, but said nothing as the dozen soldiers on horseback surrounded them. Half of them then promptly climbed down and drew swords and shields. Despite his self-confidence in dealing with his own, Jacob felt a small pang of nervous fear at seeing so many weapons aimed against him, but he forced the feeling down and took two steps towards the still-mounted lieutenant leading the patrol; recognizable due to epaulets on his tabard. "A bit far from Theramore, aren't you gentlemen?" Jacob tried asking in a friendly, jocular tone.

"Shut your yap," the lieutenant snapped, an audible sneer in his voice. "I'll be doing the questioning here. Just who are you and what are you doing with that thing?" He asked, gesturing towards Tohopekaliga with his head.

Jacob fought to keep the annoyance and anger off of his face, and prayed that Toho could do the same. "My name is Jacob Vayo," he said, using his real name for the first time in months. "Son of baron George Vayo, fief holder of the August peninsula in Kul Tiras."

His words had the desired effect, as most of the Alliance soldiers seemed to lean back slightly, taking a more neutral attitude. The lieutenant, however, kept his face impassive and his voice arrogant, though it did lose some of its edge. "Really now?" He asked, jerking the reins of his horse to move it to the side a bit to punctuate his words. "A baron's son, wandering the Barrens, dressed in old Horde armor with one of the Orcs' pets? You expect me to believe that?"

Jacob frowned, finally losing some of his patience. "If it's the truth, then what else can you do but believe it?" He asked curtly.

"You have proof of your claim?" The lieutenant asked.

"Aye, in this pouch," he said, slowly moving his right hand over the indicated article on his belt.

The Alliance officer kept his face impassive as he finally climbed down from his mount and walked over to Jacob, who had by that time removed the pouch from his belt and offered it in an outstretched hand. The lieutenant didn't quite snatch the pouch up, but looked as thought he wanted to. Jacob ignored the other man's hostility and tried to remain calm as the officer took out the papers and studied them carefully.

Finally, after some time the lieutenant looked up and his face twisted in an expression that bespoke of distaste. "Well, these look legitimate," he managed to say in an even tone. "We'll have to take you into the hold under guard to confirm with the book of seals."

Jacob frowned a bit, but he nodded. "Very well."

The lieutenant just harrumphed before he continued. "I won't pry into what you're doing with that thing," he gestured towards Toho, "but captain Fairmount will have questions for you. And for it, too, I reckon," he added, nodding towards some of his men behind Jacob's line of sight. "Francis, Reverk, slap irons on the tauren."

"That's completely unnecessary," Jacob interjected, hoping he forestalled action by any party. "The tauren is a mercenary. I was in a bit of a tight spot and paid her to take me to the nearest Alliance base. Given what I know about her, I doubt she's any sort of threat."

"Maybe so," the lieutenant allowed. "Or, if you're lying and these are forgeries," he shook Jacob's papers lightly, "then you're probably lying about her, and therefore both of you are threats. Besides," he added, smirking. "Captain Fairmount's orders are specific: no Horde presence is to be tolerated near Northwatch Hold. So your 'friend' there is to be taken in for questioning, no matter what."

Jacob gave the lieutenant an incredulous look for a moment, and then glanced back to Toho. The tauren huntress was standing still in what seemed to the human to be a studied calm, even as several armed men approached her. One of them produced a pair of oversized metal handcuffs and waited until another soldier removed the firearm from the tauren's hands before he slapped them onto her wrists.

"You seem rather flummoxed," the lieutenant's voice seemed to sneer, and Jacob turned back to see a matching expression on the other man's face. "And somewhat concerned for a so-called mercenary."

"This is not how the Alliance is supposed to act," Jacob replied. "We're supposed to be civilized, reasonable, and fair. That doesn't include throwing people into prison just because they look different."

The lieutenant snorted. "Since when was that thing a person?" He asked rhetorically. "Seems to me the good captain is going to have a grand ol' time talking with the both of you."


	4. Chapter 4

"'Trust me'" he says," Tohopekaliga said in a sardonic tone. "Good plan, genius."

Jacob closed his eyes and rubbed a hand on his forehead at the verbal jab. "It's not my fault," he countered, opening his eyes to give the tauren in the cell across from his a stern look. "They're not reacting like the Alliance guards I know back home; they're all paranoid."

"I did mention that, did I not?" Toho asked from where she laid back along a stone shelf that served as a bedding area. Of course, it was far too small for her frame to lie completely flat, but she managed a moderate reclining position that Jacob was secretly impressed she could achieve with her size. "They have been firing cannons at ships, what made you think they would let a tauren and a man pretending to be a noble go?"

"I am not pretending," Jacob replied, and then sighed when Toho gave him a questioning look from across the narrow aisle between cells. "I am who I claim I am, though I understand that you would have reservations given my earlier deception."

"You will excuse me then if I do not bow to you," Toho snidely responded. "For that reason as well as the fact that this cell is rather too small to let me do a proper curtsey."

Her harsh tone cut into Jacob more than he thought it could, and he shook his head a bit both to dismiss her words and to let him have a moment to collect his thoughts. "I am not like most nobles; none of my line are," he calmly began. "We are a relatively new house, with my grandfather being the first appointed by then Lord Admiral Gavin Proudmoore after the old baron Augustus died without leaving a proper living heir. My family were merchants and manufacturers, and we do not forget our roots." Jacob paused then to snort lightly. "As if the other noble houses would let us forget, the arrogant inbred fools."

Tohopekaliga gave him an inscrutable look as he finished, and Jacob blushed as he sat back on his cell's sleeping shelf. "You don't believe me," he said, not making it a question.

"I find it hard to believe, yes," Toho said cautiously. "As that jerk lieutenant observed, it is an odd thing for a baron's son to be wandering around in places he is likely to be harmed."

Jacob looked to the side for a moment to think before he responded. "I did say we're a bit different," he said, his voice slightly quieter than before. "My grandfather made my father and his brothers go into the world to keep their connections to the people we came from. So too did my father, and I cannot say I blame him one iota after meeting the spoiled brats that are the scions of other noble houses.

"Of course, I didn't have to pick a false name to travel under and leave behind all civilization," Jacob allowed, and sighed heavily as he dropped his gaze to the floor. "I suppose I was taken in with the idea of adventure and exploring the 'dark' continent." He shook his head then. "Sounds ridiculous now, doesn't it?" He asked, looking up at Toho.

To his surprise, Jacob saw the tauren giving him an appraising look, as if she hadn't quite seen him before. She continued to do this in silence for a few moments before she quietly began to speak. "A desire for adventure does not make one a fool, nor does what happened to you and your friends," she said. "As I told you when you awoke in my camp, this is a harsh and unforgiving world. Sometimes it will get even the best of us," Toho added, glancing to the side for a moment in memory. "But I don't think you are a fool, no, not when what you describe your family doing is so similar to my people's own practices."

Despite the situation, Jacob felt his interest rise at that. "Oh? How so?" He asked, perplexed.

"When a tauren reaches adulthood, he or she is sent away to pursue a series of trials called the Rites of the Earthmother," Toho began, her voice giving an ever so slight hitch at the last word. "They are broken into three rites: those of strength, vision, and wisdom. Each can take much time and no tauren is allowed back into society without passing them, save for those rare individuals who accomplish a feat so grand or honorable that the rites seem trivial or redundant in comparison.

"What you have described your family doing is much the same: send out the children to let them learn their true place in the world, separate from the cushion of the family, so that they may understand their purpose in a manner that could ordinarily take years to learn." Toho paused then, again giving Jacob another appraising look. "I had not thought that humans were so concerned with such things given what I have heard of your predilection towards feudalism. It is admirable."

Jacob took a moment to think on Toho's words, and he blushed slightly. "Thank you," he said, though he wasn't sure why.

Toho looked about to say something else, but the door to the jail opened, admitting the light of day into the ordinarily dark building. Both prisoners turned their heads away and squinted until their eyes could adjust whereupon they looked to see a pair of guards standing in the doorway. One of the men came forward and stopped in between the two cells and then turned to face Jacob. "Alright, captain Fairmount wants to see you now," he said, his tone even before he stepped to the cell door and produced a set of keys.

Jacob blinked at that, but quickly stood as the cell was opened. "Well, let us not keep the good captain waiting," he said, walking out after the guard nodded at his words and stepped aside. Jacob turned to leave the jail, but paused to glance over to Tohopekaliga. "I'll be back," he promised, ignoring the looks he got from the guards.

Toho nodded. "I believe it," she said, and then watched as the humans left.

* * *

The march from the squat, simply built jail to the hold's keep was short, but still lasted long enough for Jacob to get a good look at the place. _Central tower-style keep, two auxiliary towers on the plateau rising behind the keep, stable and ancillary buildings on lower level and storage on the upper. Looks like fairly standard Alliance outpost planning_, he thought, going over the arrangements as the guards took him up the hill in the center of the hold's walled area, where the keep was sited. _But I saw a lot of tents on the upper level; they're bunking more soldiers here than they're set up for on a permanent basis. I wonder why?_

The question disturbed him in a vague fashion, but Jacob put it out of his head as he and the guards reached the sole ground entrance to the tower keep. Another pair of guards, these in full plate armor, stood guard, which considering the heavy guard he had seen at the hold's main gate, seemed rather unnecessary.

Jacob once again had to force other considerations out of his mind as the jailers took him up through the tower and, finally arriving on the top level, reached the presence of captain Fairmount herself. She stood conferring with a mage and another soldier around a table upon which lay maps of the area surrounding Northwatch. As Jacob and his escorts approached she turned her silver-haired head to regard him, and the younger man felt a brief chill run down his spine.

Fairmount studied him for a moment before she nodded to the jailers. "I'll handle this from here, you two go back to your posts," she ordered, prompting the two guards to salute and spin on their heels to leave. She then turned and regarded her companions. "Jarrin, Farrik, please go see to the patrols we've worked out while I speak with the gentleman from Kul Tiras."

"Of course, captain," the mage replied for the two, and they left without incident. Jacob waited until they were gone before taking a good long look around the room. "Well, since I'm here I suppose you've confirmed my identity then?" He asked after finally matching his eyes to the officer.

"As much as we can," Fairmount allowed. She then reached down to the table and picked up a pouch that Jacob recognized as his, and offered it to him. "The seals and signatures match up with the book from Stormwind, though I still find it hard to believe," she continued as Jacob took the pouch and fastened it to his belt. "You're a long way from home, sir."

"Family business," Jacob said, providing all the answer he was willing to give the woman standing in front of him.

"I see," Fairmount said, leveling a skeptical look at him. "Well if you're not going to be forthcoming, then I am not sure if I want you here while the hold is under threat," she said, pushing to see how far she could go.

"Then I shan't stay long then," Jacob replied, unconcerned with her probing. "My business in Kalimdor is almost finished, and I will be happy to take the next supply ship to Theramore and be out of your hair," he explained.

Fairmount thought about that for a minute, and then nodded. "Fair enough. The _Sprite's Wind_ will come around in about two days. I think we can put up with you until then," she allowed.

Jacob raised an eyebrow at the captain's forthright distaste of himself, but he forced his thoughts elsewhere. "Then there is only one more thing to discuss with you," he said.

"Oh?" Fairmount replied, suspicion in her voice. "And that might be?"

"The tauren you have in the jail," he said. "I want her released."

"And why would you be concerned with her?" Fairmount asked.

"She's the reason I am here and alive, and not a corpse on the savannah," Jacob replied evenly. "She came across me in the Barrens and I managed to arrange to pay for her to bring me here after I'd been lost for days," he added, lying a bit as he figured the paranoid captain wouldn't believe in a kindly, good-natured Hordesman.

"Really?" Fairmount asked, though her tone told Jacob it was a figurative gesture. "Funny, then, that she happens to know Common."

"A bit unusual perhaps," Jacob replied. "I fail to see any humor in it."

"Strange then," Fairmount countered. "Or suspicious, possibly contrived."

Jacob raised an eyebrow. "Are you suggesting that she contrived to make me lost?" He asked, confused.

Fairmount shook her head. "Rather, mister Vayo, your story itself is contrived," she said, her demeanor stone cold. "It seems to me to be a rather convenient excuse to bring a Horde spy close to a secure position."

Jacob blinked for a moment in shock before he felt his gorge rise. "Now you wait a minute you sap-sucking cow!" He thundered, fists clenching and starting to reach for the weapons he no longer carried – taken of course by his jailers – before he regained a measure of control. "If you _dare_ accuse me of something like that, you had better have some damn good evidence to back up your insanity, or by the Light and all that is holy and right in this world, I will have your commission served to me on a silver platter and your hide tacked to my door.

"What is _wrong_ with you people?" He continued his bluster, not intending to let the captain get her say in just yet. "Since I have arrived at this bloody fortress I have been arrested, jailed, harassed and just short of accused of treason based on nothing more than a brief association with a tauren. Is it so inconceivable, so unimaginable to you that within the throngs of the Horde there exists at least one person with a modicum of compassion that you conjure up an excuse to explain her concern for human life as nothing more than a story dreamt up to spy on the Alliance? Are you so paranoid, so utterly daft that you see spies and assassins hiding in every shadow that you arrest random travelers and fire on unarmed merchantman?"

"How do you know about the merchantmen?" Fairmount asked, still suspicious.

Something in Jacob's head clicked then, and he gave the captain a suspicious glare of his own. "A better question, captain, would be how you know to what I refer?" He said carefully. "If you truly believed those ships to be pirates or Horde attackers, you would be referring to them as such. Instead, you react as if you already knew those ships were unarmed and non-hostile." A moment of dead silence met that, and Jacob felt his blood run cold. "By the Light- you're doing this on purpose!"

"Guards, I think our guest needs a nice rest," Fairmount said, addressing her words to someone behind Jacob. The young man turned and saw that a pair of armed guards had come into the room from somewhere, doubtlessly drawn by the argument. "Take him back to the stockade and stick him in the cell across from his accomplice."

"You can't do this," Jacob said, turning back to the captain. "I am a nobleman of Kul Tiras. You cannot just arrest me without charges." He hated to speak so after decrying the nobility, but he was willing to use any tool at his disposal.

Unfortunately, captain Fairmount just smirked ever so slightly. "I'm afraid I can do this; a friend of mine in SI7 calls it 'protective custody,'" she said. "You'll be under it until we can bundle you off on the _Sprite's Wind_. After that, you can scream your fool head off anywhere else in the Alliance, but it won't do you a lick of good." She glanced at the guards. "Take him away."

* * *

The sound of the jail door opening caused Tohopekaliga to snap her head up to see Jacob being brought back into the jail. At first she felt a flare of optimism, but the dejected and angry look on Jacob's face, combined with the smugly superior smirks on the two guards' quickly squashed that hope. She held her expression as neutral as she could, but couldn't help frown when her former charge was placed back into the cell he had only recently been freed from. "Alright, the cow next," one of the guards said to his compatriot.

"I am not a cow anymore than you are a disgusting ape," Toho said to the man in irritation.

The guard who had spoken grunted, but despite the backtalk he showed no anger. Instead, he turned to the other man. "Go get Tanner and Clay, we'll need some armed escorts to keep her honest."

Toho glanced to Jacob and met his eyes. Despite the differences between their cultures and upbringings, the two understood each other, and Jacob gave her the slightest of headshakes. Toho nodded to him briefly and waited patiently until the extra guards – fully armed and armored, she noted – were brought in and held an extended guard position just beyond her reach as the cell door was opened. "Alright, tauren, no funny business and we don't need to run you through, understand?"

"I understand," Toho said. "I will be peaceful."

"Good, let's get going."

* * *

Captain Fairmount had regained her composure after Jacob was taken away, and so she looked calm and steely-eyed at Tohopekaliga as the latter was brought into her presence. The tauren huntress felt a pang of nervousness run up her spine, but she decided it was mainly due to the two men in full combat gear standing at the entrance to the room that caused that particular feeling rather than the cold human in front of her.

Fairmount dismissed the jailers as she had done with Jacob, but left the two, armed men standing at the ready near the room's entrance. _No doubt the sword on the table is hers,_ Toho thought, observing that the older woman stayed close by it even with guards in the room. The nearness of the weapon seemed to give her confidence, and despite the three-foot height advantage Toho had Fairmount gave the tauren a look one might give an offensive insect. "Sit," the human said, giving a halfhearted wave.

Toho glanced around her before she replied. "I do not see a chair."

"The floor is good enough for you," Fairmount retorted. Toho narrowed her eyes a bit at the human's tone, but the tauren complied and quietly sat down on the stone floor. In this position even humans were taller than her, and Fairmount took advantage of this to look down her nose at the huntress. "What is your full name?" Fairmount asked in an imperious tone.

"Tohopekaliga Starchaser," Toho replied.

"I know a few things about your people," Fairmount said. "Enough to know that you're giving me your tribe name in its Common translation, but not your given name. Why is that?"

Toho hitched an eyebrow up at that. "My given name is the one that I identify with myself. Translating it would change its identity and deny myself. My tribe, though, takes its name from an event, and so we feel free to translate it to emphasize its meaning rather than its identity."

Fairmount hesitated then, surprised at the intricacy of the response. She recovered soon enough, however, and pressed on. "Why did you come to Northwatch Hold?"

"Because your soldiers held swords and bows and told me to come or they would kill me," Toho replied evenly. Fairmount frowned at that, and she shook her head briefly. "No. What was the reason that you came close enough to be captured by our patrol?"

Toho felt a bit of disappointment as the human closed the language loophole, but she pushed it out of her mind. "The human with me needed to be led across the Barrens," she began cautiously. "He offered coin so I agreed to his request."

"How is it you came to meet him?" Fairmount asked.

Toho hesitated for a moment before she replied. "I came across him on the scene of a battle. I do not know exactly what occurred, but I did gather that he was lost and lacked supplies. He asked if there were a way across the Barrens to an Alliance outpost, and I offered to take him if he paid in coin."

"Really?" Fairmount asked in a disbelieving tone. "It seems strange to me that he would ask such a thing of a Hordesman. Even more strange that you would be so generous to a potential enemy, even considering the coin you could make."

The tauren shrugged her shoulders, and hoped she wasn't stepping on whatever story Jacob had told the captain. "Money is money; both the Horde and the Alliance use the same standards, more or less."

"But the Alliance is a threat to the Horde, isn't it?" Fairmount asked as she started to walk, circling around Toho. "You have to have realized that the man you were helping might one day raise his blade against you or your own. Why help him, when you could just as easily beaten him and take his gold?"

"I am no thief," Toho spat out. "And I have no quarrel with the Alliance. So long as you stay to your territories I have no desire to fight you."

"Yet your fellow Hordesmen think differently," Fairmount countered. "Your Warchief has even launched an attack on Theramore before."

"To stop your mad admiral from launching the world back into the burning Hell of war," Toho snapped.

Fairmount's hand moved quickly, backhanding the tauren across her muzzle. The armored gauntlet the captain wore gave enough weight to the strike to snap Toho's head to the side. "You will not speak of admiral Daelin in such a manner," she growled. "He was a great man, cut down by half-brained savages such as yourself. You had best keep your tongue civil if you wish to keep it at all."

Toho glared up at the human, but she studiously kept her mouth shut. Fairmount waited a moment before resuming her questioning. "The men in the patrol who captured you reported that you were at one point aiming a firearm towards them," she began. "If you have no quarrel with the Alliance, then why were you acting in a threatening manner?"

"Northwatch Hold's paranoia is well known from Freewind Post to Ratchet and beyond," Toho replied. "I figured your men would attack me. I suspect they would certainly have done so, firearm or not, had Jacob not been there."

"So you admit that you did raise a weapon against soldiers of the Alliance?" Fairmount needled.

"Only in self-defense," Toho countered.

"Why would you need to defend yourself, then?" Fairmount asked. "Perhaps you knew you were doing something that would be considered a threat? Like spying?"

"From what I hear, you consider passing butterflies as threats to your fortress," Toho scoffed. "I have seen the bodies of unfortunate persons who have run afoul of your foot patrols."

"So you thought you'd get even then, eh?" Fairmount prodded, her voice accusatory.

"Don't be ridiculous," Tohopekaliga replied. "Northwatch is too well armed and staffed for that."

"Aha!" Fairmount exclaimed, moving next to the table with her sword on it. "So you have been spying."

Toho blushed and shook her head. "Spying is not necessary when you see a fortress like this," she said. "One can see your men patrolling the walls and towers easily from a distance and know you have plenty. And if you consider that spying, then maybe you should be more concerned with making your men invisible than with passing travelers."

Fairmount silently studied the tauren for a moment, and then shook her head. "Your story isn't adding up," she said, picking up her sword. "You somehow contrived to be accessible to a human noble traveling in the Barrens when he needed help, you conveniently know Common to a surprising degree of fluency, and you seem to know an awful lot about this hold and its operations, despite your protestations to the contrary." The captain hefted her blade up then, but held it only at guard, as if daring Tohopekaliga to try something. "I think you are a Horde spy, and sooner or later, we'll get to the bottom of this," she said, and then looked over at the guards in the room. "Take her back to the stockade, and make sure to clap some irons on her legs this time." Fairmount then looked down at Toho. "We'll have another talk tomorrow morning. If you're not more cooperative by then, I will be forced to resort to more persuasive measures."

Toho felt her blood run cold at that, but she remained stoic as the two guards in the room came up behind her and held their swords out. "All right you, time to go," one of them said. Begrudgingly, the tauren started to stand.

A glint of something around Tohopekaliga's neck caught Fairmount's eye then, and before the huntress could finish standing the captain had the tip of her blade poised next to Toho's neck, making the tauren freeze in mid-motion. "What is this?" Fairmount asked, dipping the blade down to a golden chain barely visible in the fur around Toho's neck. The captain deftly maneuvered the blade to drag the chain up enough so that it pulled the trinket it was attached to out from the loose cloth of Toho's linen shirt. Fairmount recognized it immediately, and her face darkened with rage. "You _dare_ rob from the dead and wear your spoils so openly? I should cut you down for this insult."

"The necklace is mine," Toho protested, though her voice lacked strength as she felt rather vulnerable without armor or weapons – naturally confiscated upon being arrested. "It belonged to my father, as it belonged to his father and his father before."

"You are a filthy liar," Fairmount snapped, and then reached forward and yanked the trinket away from the tauren, snapping the necklace off. "No savage of the Horde wears a symbol of the Church of the Light. Not unless they've taken it as spoils from the dead."

"They do if they adhere to the tenants of the Light," Toho replied.

"And how would you know of such things?" Fairmount scoffed. Toho just smirked back, and her answer was nearly startling to the captain. "Did you think that Lady Proudmoore's expedition were the first humans to cross the sea to Kalimdor?"

Fairmount had no reply to that. Instead she waved for the guards to take Toho away, and they quickly prodded the tauren into movement. The captain waited until they were gone before she looked down to study the amulet more closely. "No," she said after verifying her suspicions, and then clenched her fist around the symbol. "No, this will not stand. Not when we're so close." With that, she turned and marched out of the room to look for one of her yeomen. "Someone get me Farrik!"

* * *

Jacob looked up as Toho was escorted back into the jail, and he felt some worry when he saw a look of consternation upon her face. Like she had done before, he kept his peace as she was locked back into her cell, though he found that hard to do when one of the jailers went outside and quickly returned with a set of leg irons that fit easily over the tauren's ankles, just above her hooves. _Looks like Fairmount is well prepared_, the human warrior noted with growing confidence in his spur of the moment realization. The confirmation gave him little comfort, however, as it spoke of underhanded plots and scheming, neither of which he had any love for.

Finally, after some time the jailers finished their task and locked Toho back into the cell. "Dinner will be served in two hours," the head jailer, a balding man with a businesslike air, said. "If you use your chamber pot before then I suggest you make it known, because after dinner no one is going to be coming in here until daybreak."

Jacob and Toho both made eye contact with the jailer, and though they didn't respond he could sense they understood well enough. "Try not to make too much noise," he said, and then turned and left after the last of his assistants had departed. The light level in the small stockade dropped significantly once the door was shut, and both prisoners waited a few moments for their eyes to adjust before they turned to look at each other. "Well," Jacob began. "How did your meeting with the good captain go?" He asked in mock pleasantness.

Tohopekaliga rolled her eyes, but a slight, brief tug at the corner of her mouth told Jacob she appreciated the humor. "I really wish you would have just let me start shooting; at least then I could have been killed and spared meeting the stuck up krikta."

Jacob chuckled momentarily at that. "Krikta?" He asked, confused.

Toho blushed slightly. "I am sorry, it is a foul swear taurahe swear. I should be better mannered, but…" Her voice trailed off and she looked over his head, eyes focusing on a distant point well beyond the jail. After a moment of this silence, she sighed and then made eye contact again. "Fairmount was determined to get me to admit to being a spy, and I dare say she hoped I would confess to some sort of attack upon Northwatch."

"I would not be surprised at all, considering I believe she is actively trying to trigger such an attack," Jacob said, and then he gave a brief description of his interview with Fairmount and explained his sudden hunch. "And now they clap you in irons suspiciously well-designed for tauren. It seems to me that Fairmount is up to something."

"It does seem like that, doesn't it?" Toho rhetorically asked. "If what you're saying is true, then we may be in great danger."

"Yeah," Jacob said, and then glanced around. "Though at the moment it doesn't look like we can do much about it."

"Unfortunately, no," Toho replied, slumping where she sat on the sleeping shelf. "But we must be on the lookout for an opportunity to escape. That is," she looked up at Jacob then, her expression openly questioning. "If you feel you can do what may be necessary?"

Jacob felt his face flush then, and he shook his head a bit. "I don't want to kill anyone here."

"Neither do I," Toho replied. "Not even captain Fairmount. However, we may be required to do things that may hurt people, and well… If someone is doing his best to kill you, would you hesitate in defending yourself?"

Again, Jacob felt his face flush, but after a moment of consideration he nodded his head. "Aye, I do not intend to die on a guard's sword."

"One more question, then," Toho said, and she anxiously licked her lips before continuing. "Would you do the same if it were me about to be run through, though it may require a human death to save a tauren?"

Silence fell in the jail then, and Jacob felt the turmoil of indecision in his mind. He glanced down to his feet and took some time to think before he sighed and then looked back up at the tauren. "Yes, I will," he said. "I owe you my life, that I have not forgotten. Also," he added, glancing to the side a bit. "I promised Gratan that you would not die unless I had already fallen."

Toho blinked in surprise at that, and again silence fell over the pair. After a moment she closed her eyes and bowed her head in the direction of the human. "I am humbled, and I thank you," she said, opening her eyes to look at him again. "I admit I had my fears, especially after how you reacted to me at first."

Jacob shook his head at that. "As I said, I do owe you my life. In addition, the seeds of your words over the past few days have not fallen upon infertile ground," he added. "Whatever the rest of your people may be like, you yourself have proven honorable while my own brethren have been duplicitous. If I blind myself to that then I may as well dig a grave for myself and die now, for life would hold no learning nor growth for me."

Toho smiled at that. "Then let us pray that no graves lie in our future."

"Amen."

* * *

"So?" Fairmount asked of her second-in-command.

Farrik stroked his chin for a moment and then finally nodded. "It will be tricky to keep it secret, but I think I know the men to help me carry this out; they have no love of the Horde or its sympathizers."

"Excellent," Fairmount replied, leaning back in her seat, one hand resting on the chair's arm while the other toyed with the necklace taken from the captured tauren. "This needs to be done soon, preferably tonight, so that I can write up a report to send to the squib's father."

"I shall accommodate," Farrik replied. "By your leave?"

"Of course," Fairmount said, waving the man off. He bowed slightly and then turned and headed for the closed door to the room. Before he got there, however, the door opened and in stepped a striking young woman dressed in the robes of a priestess. She nearly ran into the retreating officer, and only a quick backstep by the man prevented this. "Oh, I am sorry lieutenant," she sad.

Farrik smiled at her. "A minor issue; think nothing of it, priestess Omiya."

The priestess graced him with a smile and nodded. "The Light bless you for your patience then."

Farrik chuckled and nodded his head to Omiya before he left the room, closing the door behind him. Omiya then turned and walked towards Fairmount, who remained seated in her chair next to the map table. "You called for me, captian?"

"I did," Fairmount confirmed, standing up as she spoke. "I have here an item taken from the tauren we captured today and I wanted you to take a look at it." She raised her hand and held out the necklace, upon which Omiya took it. "A pendant of the church?" The priestess asked.

"That's what I hope to ask you," Fairmount replied. "The prisoner claimed it belongs to her family, but given she's a savage I doubt that story highly." The captain paused then to pick up the mug of ale she had been nursing since dismissing Tohopekaliga and took a modest swig. "I was hoping you could tell me if it is a crude forgery, or something that came from the Eastern Kingdoms?"

"Hmm?" Omiya murmured, looking up after seemingly been entranced by the amulet. "Oh, yes, of course. In fact, I can tell you right now that I recognize the craftsmanship; it was definitely made back in the old world, at Northshire."

"Just as I thought: the lying beast is a dirty grave robber, too," Fairmount said, back down. "Well, she can no longer defile our beliefs. If you would, priestess, please see that gets to someone who deserves it."

"Of course, captain," Omiya replied, and then bowed slightly to the Alliance officer. "I will go see to that now. Unless you require anything else of me?"

Fairmount shook her head. "No, thank you. I think I have everything taken care of for now."

"Then peace be with you," Omiya said, and then turned and left the room. Several minutes of stairs and walking later, she was outside and alone in the gathering gloom.

Omiya paused for a moment to look around, and once she was sure no one else was near, she again looked at the amulet and studied it intensely. "Oh captain Fairmount," she sadly spoke to herself. "If only you could recognize this the way I do…"

The woman looked around again, and then placed the necklace in a pocket. _Light knows I _should_ recognize it,_ Omiya thought as she resumed her movement though the gathering twilight. _I'm the one who made it all those years ago, along with all of its brothers._

Plans started to form in her head; she knew the captain was up to something dark, had indeed read it in Fairmount's and Farrik's emotions. _If this comes back to me now, then the Light has made it so to warn me._ Omiya nodded to herself as she headed for the building in which she had modest accommodations. _Before the night is over, I must act._


	5. Chapter 5

"So, where have you been?" Jacob asked as he lay on the sleeping shelf in his cell.

"Pardon?" Tohopekaliga asked as she looked across the candle lit jail.

Jacob grunted as he worked himself into a sitting position. It took him a bit more work than normal as dinner was only just past and despite the harsh welcome, Northwatch jailers at least fed their charges well. "I mean to ask, where have you traveled to?" Jacob reiterated. "You've mentioned you've traveled a lot."

"Oh," Toho said. She took a moment to think back and collect her thoughts and memories before she spoke again. "Well, aside from Mulgore, Durotar, and the Barrens, I've been across Kalimdor as far south as Tanaris and Un'Goro Crater and as far north as Winterspring. I even spent a fair amount of time in Desolace."

"Desolace?" Jacob asked. "I haven't heard of it, thought it doesn't sound pleasant."

"It isn't," Toho replied, shrugging. "It is a barren wasteland that makes the Tanaris Desert look welcoming by comparison. The creatures there are fierce and the native peoples even more so."

"So why did you go there?" Jacob asked, interested now.

Toho shrugged. "Duty, mainly; enemies of the Horde make their home there in hopes that their scheming goes unnoticed." She smirked a bit then. "They were mistaken."

Jacob absorbed this and thought for a moment. "Any of them the kind I would know?" He asked carefully.

"If you mean Alliance, no," Toho replied gently. "Oh, the Night Elves have an outpost there, but the Horde is unconcerned with them being in that area. We're far more concerned with the centaur and demons."

"Demons?" Jacob asked in a startled tone. "I thought they were defeated six years ago?"

"Their leader and main army, yes," Toho replied. "But enough of them and their cult followers have survived to make enclaves here and there. Then there are the Satyr, a lesser kind of demon that comes from corrupted Night Elven stock; they've had outposts across northern Kalimdor for centuries." She paused then and gave the human a confused look. "Should you not already know this?"

Jacob shook his head a bit. "To tell the truth, I'm not sure," he explained. "Information about Kalimdor is spotty back home. A few explorers have published accounts but most are considered frauds or hoaxes, and the military tends to classify its reports so any enemies can't see how much we know.

"Basically, most of what I know about Kalimdor I have had to learn the hard way." The warrior looked pointedly around the jail at this.

Toho chuckled lightly, garnering a mildly irritated look from the human. "I'm sorry Jake, I am only laughing at the situation, not at you."

Jacob's irritation melted away and he smiled at the tauren. "Well, I guess it's funny… If you like gallows humor."

"Like what?" Toho asked, as it was her turn to be unfamiliar with a concept.

"Gallows humor. You know, the kind of dark jokes someone tells to another when they're in a dire situation," Jacob said, trying to explain but only getting an odd look from Toho in return. "Like, for instance, when two men are facing the gallows, and one makes a joke about not needing to pay off a debt he owes money on."

"Oh," Toho said, her face lighting up a bit. "I think I understand now. It is not so different for my people, though I think most of us prefer to be silent and contemplative in such situations."

Jacob shrugged at that. "Well, I guess us humans are just odd," he said, sheepishly smiling. "But for what it's worth, I'm glad you're not so quiet as you say; it's nice to have someone to talk to."

Tohopekaliga smiled lightly and shrugged. "It is not that bad yet, I think," she said evenly.

Just then the door to the jail opened, surprising the two prisoners. Three armed men stepped in, none wearing the usual tabard that was a part (and usually the whole) of an Alliance soldier's uniform. The significant lack of this cloth set warnings off in Jacob's head, which only magnified when the last man through the door closed it slowly to avoid making noise.

Toho dropped her head and placed her hand over her face while muttering something in her native tongue. Then after a moment she looked up and glanced over to Jacob with a question on her face. Jacob gulped and nodded slightly, which caused her features to harden.

"Which one first?" One of the men asked of their leader, whom Jacob recognized as the man named Farrik he'd seen in the tower.

"The squib," Farrik said, taking out his darkened blade. "Make it quick and don't worry about the noise, Jacen's got the nearest boys away on a drill." The other two drew their weapons as well and followed their leader as he advanced on the two prisoners.

Jacob and Toho both naturally moved their bodies as far from the barred doors as possible, but both were only too well away that the help it afforded them was negligible. Jacob's eyes traced over the inside of his cell in growing panic, but with the dinner dishes having been taken hours ago he found nothing that could even remotely be used as a weapon.

Just as Farrik was closing in on the door, however, the last man in the group suddenly paused and then spun on a foot. "Do you hear that?" He asked, his voice starting to quake.

"What?" Farrik asked, stopping to look back. "I didn't hear anything."

"Why can't you hear it?" The man asked as his face and voice started to show panic. "It's getting louder. Oh Light I can't stand it! I've got to get out of here!" Before either of his compatriots could act, the man bolted to the door of the jail and virtually slammed it open before running outside.

"Wester!" The man beside Farrik called. "What the devil is going on?"

"I don't know, Daren," Farrik growled out while he turned back to the fearful and confused prisoners. "But we don't have time now, we need to finish this."

"Right," the man said, somewhat shaken but nevertheless focused on the task. Just as he turned back to face Jacob, however, the latter saw a change come over the young man's face: his eyes seemed to glaze over and he froze for a moment.

Farrik didn't see this, as he was too busy focusing on using one hand to pull out a key from a pocket while the other held his sword. "When I get the door open make sure to keep the squib from escaping should-" The older man didn't have a chance to finish his sentence as Daren slammed the hand guard of his sword into the back of Farrik's head.

Farrik fell forward and slammed against the bars of Jacob's cell, clearly knocked halfway senseless. Nevertheless he managed to push himself off of the bars and away from his attacker just before Daren tried to smash the pommel home; instead he slammed the hilt of the sword into the bars while Farrik leaned against a roof support and kicked the young man back.

Daren seemed unfazed by this, though, and he boldly launched himself at Farrik, batting the other man's sword aside with his own blade before ploughing into him. The fight degenerated into a tangled mesh of fists and kicks and grappling as both men sought to incapacitate or kill the other. Jacob watched in perverse fascination as the battle shifted back and forth, with Daren's youth balanced by Farrik's experience and training. Yet, whatever had impelled Daren to attack his co-conspirator seemed to give him an unnatural focus, and before long he had Farrik down and in a chokehold that slowly drove the elder man into unconsciousness.

Before either Jacob or Toho could even think of saying or doing anything, a robed figure carrying an ornate staff walked into the jail and casually strode up to where Daren had stood up following his victory. The young man was holding attention as if he were on parade, but his eyes remained glazed and his expression blank. He seemed to take no notice of his surroundings or of the approach of the newcomer. "You've done well," the robed figure said as she reached the last would-be assassin. "Time to sleep now," she added, and then waved her staff in front of Daren's face. One she finished the young man's eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed on top of Farrik's unconscious form.

Silence reigned for a few pregnant moments before the newcomer used her free hand to pull back her hood, and Jacob finally saw the golden-haired woman clearly. Her face showed a mild concern as she looked between the two prisoners, and after a moment she spoke. "I see I arrived in time; excellent."

"Who are you?" Jacob asked warily. "And what did you do to those men?"

The woman nodded to him. "I am called Omiya," she said as she kneeled down to retrieve Farrik's key, which had fallen to the floor in the scuffle. "And as to what I did, rest assured that these men will suffer no permanent damage."

"Why are you here?" Jacob asked.

"To prevent a tragedy from occurring," Omiya replied as she turned and unlocked Tohopekaliga's cell. The tauren watched her warily with narrowed eyes as Omiya entered the cell and then kneeled again, this time to unlock the chains around the huntress' ankles. "Both of you are marked for death, though for separate reasons."

"And why do you care?" Toho asked, moving to rub her ankles as the priestess stepped back. "I have yet to see anyone in this hold who would be so concerned."

Omiya nodded once to Toho before she turned and went to open Jacob's cell. "Because I am a follower of the Light, and the Light cries out against the senseless loss of life that comes from such malicious behavior." She stepped back then as both Jacob and Toho left their cells, and then smiled. "Also, I have something that belongs to you," Omiya added, and seemingly from nowhere a necklace appeared in her open palm, replacing the jailer's key.

Tohopekaliga's eyes widened. "My necklace!" She exclaimed, and then reached out and delicately plucked it from Omiya's outstretched hand. "Thank you so much," Toho said as she quickly refastened it around her neck.

"Thanks are unnecessary as it was my duty," Omiya said, bowing her head slightly. "I was there years ago when that one was made, and then given to a friend." She tilted her head slightly and regarded the tauren for a moment. "Arthur would not have given it away lightly, even in his missionary work. And if it had not been given freely, it would have dissolved on his death." Omiya smiled as a befuddled look came over the two beings standing in front of her. "Your ancestor must have proven himself a worthy figure indeed."

A moment of silence fell in the jail for a moment before Jacob cleared his throat. "I… am rather confused," he said hesitantly.

Just then Farrik moaned slightly, lightly startling Jacob and Toho. "Now is not the place to explain," Omiya said, and then turned to stride for the exit. "Now follow me and I will take you to your mounts and equipment. There is little time to waste."

* * *

Jacob felt like was walking on pins and needles as he followed Omiya through the compound. The mysterious rescuer seemed unperturbed by the fact that she had essentially broken two prisoners out of jail and was now walking them towards the stables in plain sight, and her continued calm in the face of the situation was eating at him. "How are we not being spotted and chased?" He finally asked after the issue became too much for him.

"I have cast a spell that lowers our visibility," Omiya answered without so much as a glance back. "So long as we do not go too close to the others, nor raise our voices much, we shall remain undetected."

"I know of this spell," Tohopekaliga said from where she walked behind Jacob. "But I thought priests could only cast it upon themselves because of the strain? And also that it cannot deaden sound."

Omiya said nothing to that. Instead, she and the others continued to head down the path that led from the upper plateau to the level that held the stables. The silence became oppressive, and Jacob suddenly realized why. _It's a part of the spell_, he thought. _It muffles sound coming in as well as going out_. This idea disturbed him in a manner he could not quite understand, but it made the hairs on his neck stand up all the same.

Soon enough he had other thoughts to occupy his mind as the trio approached the stables. "Your mounts are inside, unguarded," Omiya quietly said as they reached the main doors. "Although your ravasaur is cordoned off, given its poisonous skin," she added, looking to Toho.

Jacob also looked to the tauren. "Poison?" He asked, alarmed. "I was handling bags that were riding on it."

"And if you had contacted any poison you'd be sick right now," Toho countered. "Now hush," she added, and then looked to Omiya. "What about our equipment? The Barrens are too dangerous to go through without protection."

Omiya waved her staff towards an outbuilding across the lower bailey. "That storage building contains your effects. However, there are at least two guards inside at all times. Acquiring your equipment will be tricky and require more stealth than even my spell can provide."

The group stood in silence for a moment before Tohopekaliga sighed briefly. "Tauren are not known for stealth," she said evenly. "I will get our mounts ready while you two get the equipment."

Omiya nodded at that. "As was my supposition," she said, and then turned to Jacob. "Come now, we mustn't tarry."

Jacob shook his head briefly as he held up a hand. "Wait," he said, and then glanced to Toho. "Are you going to be alright by yourself?"

Toho smiled at him. "I am a big girl, Jacob," she teased. Then her countenance grew serious. "I will be fine."

Glumly, Jacob nodded and then turned to Omiya. "Alright, let's go."

The priestess simply turned and walked off at that, and Jacob followed while Toho gently opened the stable doors and slipped inside.

* * *

"So what do you think of that commotion earlier?"

The guard, Krikan, shrugged briefly, causing the armor he wore to clank softly in the night. "About the supposed noble or the tauren?" He asked the other guard sitting across from him in the storage building.

The other man shrugged. "Either, I suppose," he said. "I'm just bored and need something to talk about."

Kirken grunted as he leaned back on top of the barrel he'd appropriated as a seat. "I don't rightly know about either of them, really," he said. "Garren and Jacen had the duty in the keep today. Jacen's been kind of cagey about it, though Garren mentioned that the pair of 'em ticked off the captain something fierce."

"I wonder what that's about then? The captain's been acting awfully strange lately."

"More like she's doing her job," Kirken snorted. "We should be attacking the Horde, not waiting for them to attack us. The captain knows that and she's been taking the fight to them."

"What fight?" The other guard asked. "There's been a peace made you know."

"Peace with Orcs?" Kirkan snorted. "They kill and burn everything that isn't theirs. I ask you, what kind of a man would tolerate peace instead of killing the lot of 'em?"

"This kind," a voice said from behind the sneering guard. Surprised, he spun around just in time to see a vague shape materializing out of thin air before a large object smashed into his face.

Jacob let the shield he'd taken from a nearby rack drop while the injured guard reflexively brought both hands to his face and started to breath in for a yell of pain. The escaped warrior didn't allow for that, though, as he grabbed Kirken's shoulder with one hand and used it to hold the man in place as he drove a fist into the guard's abdomen. With his diaphragm stunned, Kirken wordlessly expelled the air from his lungs as he collapsed to the ground.

Satisfied that the guard was out of commission for the moment, Jacob turned to deal with the other one. When he turned around, however, he was surprised to see that the other man was already on the ground and unconscious, with a lump on the back of his head. Standing behind him was Omiya, who brandished her staff in a two-handed grip. Surprised, Jacob just gave the priestess a look, to which she shrugged. "Even one of my calling is sometimes required to use violence."

"That's not very religious of you," Jacob countered as he turned to reach for some rope he saw stockpiled in the corner of the shed.

"This is an imperfect world; those who forget that lose their path amongst the rushes," Omiya replied somewhat cryptically. "Besides, I will heal them both once you have them secured, so in the end they have only endured a temporary suffering."

Jacob merely grunted to that as he kneeled to get to work, focusing on Kirken first before the latter could recover his breath. "You don't much sound like the priests and priestesses I know," Jacob commented as he finished tying and gagging Kirken, and went to the other. "And given what you said earlier, I find myself asking just who, or what, you really are?"

Omiya smiled politely, her features lacking any trace of negative emotions that someone else might show at being challenged. "All in due time, Jacob," she said. "Suffice it to say for now that your suspicions are not unfounded, though they are misplaced."

"Easy for you to say," Jacob replied as he finished with the unconscious guard and stood to look for Toho's equipment. "You're not the one depending on a cipher amidst a host of hostile soldiers."

"True, but considering the alternative you nearly received, I hope you can suspend your disbelief for a bit of time," Omiya answered. As she spoke she held out her staff and warm, subtle rays of golden light suffused the bodies of both guards. Jacob watched in fascinated awe as the wounds on both men melted away, leaving behind unblemished skin. "As you can see, whenever I do tell you something, it is the truth," the priestess added coyly.

"Uh, yeah," Jacob muttered, turning back to his immediate task. "So you said 'in due time', does that mean you're coming with us?"

"No," Omiya replied evenly. "But the events that have precipitated tonight's actions have converged in a way I have seldom seen before. Although our paths will diverge after your escape, I have confidence they will come together again in the future."

At that, Jacob paused and stood frozen for several moments in thought. Then he turned and gave Omiya a look of utter confusion. "Just what do you mean by _that_?"

"You shall see, eventually," Omiya again replied mysteriously. "For now, time runs short: the guards will return to their regular nightly rounds after the drill Farrik's ally arranged as a distraction. So let us hurry your things over to the stables."

"Toho's things, anyway," Jacob said, decided to take the priestess' advice and concentrate on the immediate future. "I'm not using that old Horde gear when there's top-grade Alliance stuff here." He cast a wary eye to the light-sworn woman. "Unless you have a problem with my taking it?"

"You pay your taxes, right?" Omiya asked. When Jacob nodded, she smiled again, this time displaying a bit of cunning behind her normally sweet visage. "Then as far as I'm concerned, it's your property as well."

"How practical of you," Jacob replied, smirking despite the situation and his suspicion. "But again, not very religious."

"And again, this is an imperfect world," Omiya reminded him. "The Light understands the needs of the moment. Speaking of which…"

"Yeah yeah, I'm going, I'm going," Jacob said and returned to his work.


	6. Chapter 6

_Smoke wafted into her nose, waking up the young child to the distant sounds of chaos. Screams and shouts in the distance frightened her, and the blonde girl hurriedly got up and walked from her room into the house's living room bedecked only in nightclothes. "Mommy, daddy?" She asked, seeing both of her parents emerging from their own room._

"_Go back to bed, Yeela," her mother said insistently._

_Her father, though, shook his head. "No, something's not right," he said, going to the front door. "I have a bad feeling about this."_

_Scarcely had he spoken when a panicked shout came from down the very street they lived on. "Orcs! It's a raid!"_

"_To arms! All men to arms!" Another, more disciplined yell sounded. "They're attacking the harbor!"_

_Her father reacted instantly and ran towards the small storage closet where he kept his militia equipment. "Take Yeela and get to the basement, now!" He yelled to her mother even as he quickly took out and buckled the lightweight steel mail over his nightclothes._

"_You're not going out to fight them?" Her mother asked frantically, even as she turned to bustle over to her young daughter. "The harbor is on the other side of town, let the men there defend it."_

"_You know I can't abandon them anymore they could abandon us," her father replied, slipping into leather boots and finally taking up his sword. "Now go, and stay safe!" He commanded, rushing to the door and opening it. Outside men rushed from left to right, heading towards the harbor. Her mother called out a wish of luck as her father ran to join them._

_An ominous shadow darker than the moonlit night swept over the men in the street then, prompting them to look up just in time to see a fireball descend upon them. Yeela watched in shock as men burned to death within seconds, screaming out their agony. A few continued to scream, left alive but burning, at least until the shape that cast the shadow artfully dropped from the sky to land atop them, crushing the few survivors of the fiery attack with huge, clawed limbs._

"_Dragon!" Someone shouted – unnecessarily, as no one on Azeroth could mistake the red-scaled beast for anything but the winged firebreather it was. Several shapes on its back leaped down, resolving themselves into hulking green-skinned figures that towered over the few human militiamen that rushed from nearby to engage them. Yeela's father was amongst this group, and he quickly engaged a brute half again his size._

"_Come on, Yeela," her mother said, finally breaking out of the shocked trance she had been in. She tugged hard on the little girl, who remained fixated on the scene of carnage before her. "We need to get-"_

_Yeela heard no more as her mind fixated only on seeing her father reeling after being pushed off balance. He barely regained his feet before the orc he'd been fighting buried its crudely made axe into the human's back. She screamed. Her mother wailed. The orc saw them, saw them and smiled in a way that burned to the child's very soul; it was a look of bloodlust and hunger. In that moment, she comprehended something that a child should never know as she realized the orc didn't want to just kill her, but to _consume_ her utterly, in every sense of the word._

_Uttering a roar, it pulled its axe from the corpse of her father and rushed forward._

* * *

Captain Fairmount bolted upright in her bed, breathing heavily and sweating profusely. It took her several moments of looking around the dark chamber that was her sleeping quarters in the main keep before the older woman finally brought her emotions under control. Despite the near-perfect blackness, she managed to reach to a table next to her bed and retrieved a bottle, which she promptly opened. _Damned dreams,_ she thought, taking a swig of the rum. _Damned memories._

More of the memories came back unbidden: seeing the orc come close to charging into the house, before a company of dwarf marksmen arrived on their street and filled the air with lead, killing orcs and driving away their dragon; the funeral for her father and all the others who perished in the raid; and the long years of fear before the Horde had been broken and smashed at the end of the Second War.

And hatred. So much hatred cultivated over the years that had finally blossomed when the Orcs escaped their internment and fled across the sea. Fairmount had jumped at Lady Proudmoore's call for an exodus to the west, hoping to run across the Orcs again. Now she was here, now she had power, but despite this, her vengeance remained unsatisfied, blocked by a peace agreement that both Proudmoore and the Orcish warchief, Thrall, seemed dead set on maintaining despite the opposition from within their own peoples.

_But here I am_, Fairmount thought. _All I need to do is provoke a response, a serious response from the Horde _or_ the Alliance, and war will return_. She took another swig from the rum bottle. _And this time we won't stop until all of those beasts are put down for good. My contacts in Stormwind have assured me of this._

The sudden noise of rapid footsteps coming down the hall startled her, as did the thumping on her door. "Captain Fairmount!" The voice of her young page nearly shouted through the oak. "Captain, the prisoners have escaped!"

"No," Fairmount whispered to herself. _The kid knows I'm up to something out here, and the cow, so nice it would be to blame a nobleman's death on the Horde; the only thing nobles care about more than their money is their pride_. "Get my gear, Harold!" She called back. "And alert the compound! All soldiers to arms!"

* * *

Jacob and Omiya slipped back into the stables to find Toho finishing fastening the riding harness to her venomhide ravasaur, The tauren looked up from her preparations and tensed briefly until she recognized the two figures walking into the building. "Was there trouble?" Toho asked as the pair drew near.

"Just had to subdue a couple of guards the hard way," Jacob replied, and then grunted as he set down the chest he'd been carrying. "Man, your stuff is heavy," he added as he stood upright again and rubbed his lower back.

"It takes a lot of metal to cover eight feet of tauren," Toho said by way of agreement as she moved to the chest and opened it. "Although it seems you are trying to match me in sheer weight of armor," she observed, looking over Jacob while she pulled her mail from the chest.

"Full plate mail is a bit more restricting, but I'll take the protection it offers any day," Jacob replied evenly, smirking lightly at her jest. "Besides, I've trained to fight in it."

"Let us hope that you won't need to," Tohopekaliga replied as she turned and took a few steps back to get clearance. "Do me a favor, Jacob, and take my rifle out of that chest for me while I armor up."

Omiya stepped over from where she had been looking out the cracked open main doors. "I will handle that," she said evenly to the others. "You should load up the kodo with her miscellaneous gear and provisions for the trip."

Jacob nodded. "Aye, makes sense," he replied, and did as asked. All three of them worked quickly at their tasks, and to Jacob it seemed like their escape might very well go off without a hitch.

The sudden clang of a bell being rung on the upper tier of the hold's terrain caused Jacob to freeze, and he closed his eyes and willed himself to refrain from screaming his outrage to the world. "What now?" He asked, looking to Omiya.

"You two must finish your preparations," the priestess replied. "I will go and see if I cannot waylay the others by directing them to another place in the hold, but be quick for there are a lot of soldiers here and few places to hide." With that Omiya turned and slipped out of the stables without giving either of the escapees a chance to reply.

Both Toho and Jacob turned to give each other a questioning look, and the human sighed. "Alright, they're your mounts, so you finalize everything while I go to the gate. Deal?" He asked.

"Deal," Toho replied. "Now hurry."

* * *

Captain Fairmount ran down the earthen ramp leading to the lower bailey, followed by two dozen men at arms, and another dozen or so mages, priests, and marksmen to provide support. "Double the guard on the towers! Light all the torches!" Her second-in-command, Jarrin, commanded. "Mages stand ready to port guards!"

_We'll get them, _Fairmount told herself._ We'll get them and maybe find enough reason to finally set the war going. _"Try to take them alive," she found herself saying, realizing she had to play her part well this night. "But if they resist you are free to use lethal force."

Grumbles of assent came from the troops behind her, and Fairmount hid a smirk on her face as they reached the lower bailey. Soon enough, though, she saw a figure come from the shadows, and the captain held up a hand to halt her company. "Who goes there?" She demanded.

"Captain Fairmount, thank the Light you're here," said the approaching woman, whom Fairmount recognized as the priestess Omiya. "I saw the prisoners from the jail, they've escaped and have attacked the equipment building!"

Fairmount frowned at that. "That will make dealing with them more difficult," she said, looking towards the indicated building, away from the stables.

"And the men inside are at risk," Omiya added.

"Er, yes, of course," Fairmount replied, realizing she had forgotten about the normal watch. She hid her embarrassment by turning around to address her troops. "First section, form a cordon around the storage building! Third section, deploy in support. Second section, deploy on the perimeter in case they sneak past!"

The troops responded quickly to the orders, prodded as they were by the non-commissioned officers directly in control of each section. They moved swiftly and as relatively silently as they could, given the heavy armor the regular soldiers wore, and Fairmount turned to her immediate subordinate. "Jarrin, take the east side and I'll take the west, make sure nothing gets out unless it's one of ours or dead. We'll storm the building once everyone is in position."

The mage gave Fairmount a questioning look at that. "Captain, you do realize that with the mages at your command there shouldn't be a need for violence? We can just freeze them down if they try to bolt."

Fairmount gave Jarrin a look of anger that startled him. "You will do as I command," she said harshly. "They are enemies of the Alliance and pose a threat to this fortress if they manage to escape. Do your duty and obey my orders, understood?"

Jarrin frowned, but nodded. "Yes, sir," he replied.

"Good," Fairmount said, and then stalked off, leaving Jarrin standing with Omiya without so much as a look back. The latter turned to the mage and raised an eyebrow. "The captain seems rather intense," she observed.

"Aye," Jarrin replied. "I don't see what a scrub from back east and one tauren can do to be a threat to the hold," he added in concern.

"Neither do I, but then I know nothing of such things," Omiya said. "War is not something one studies in the priesthood."

"War?" Jarrin asked, surprised. "Who said anything about war? We're trying to recapture prisoners."

Omyia paused for a moment to pointedly look over the compound, and Jarrin found his eyes following her own vision. Around them, at every tower torches were being lit, guards ran back and forth on the ramparts, and the three sections of Alliance troops continued to take up battle positions around the storage building. "Just two prisoners?" Omiya finally asked, looking back to the mage.

Jarrin found himself unable to say anything to that. Instead, he just moved past the priestess and headed to the position he had been ordered to take.

The enigmatic priestess watched him go, and then quietly smiled to herself.

* * *

Two guards stood at the main gate, which was shut and barred as Jacob walked up. _I hope this works,_ he thought briefly as he entered the light cast from one of the lanterns set up to provide the guards light. Both of the armored soldiers – one man and one woman – turned and drew their swords immediately. "Who goes there?" The woman challenged him.

"Your Light-blasted doom if you don't step to on the double!" Jacob roared, his voice projecting in what his trainers back home referred to as a 'command voice.' "Don't you see all the commotion? Go and join the captain's combat team at the upper bailey!"

The voice alone would have drilled fear and worry into any green recruit, which Jacob suspected most of the guards to be. The fact that he had also 'borrowed' a tabard with sergeant's chevrons sewn into it while he had grabbed Toho's things only helped instill an automatic obeisance into the two soldiers in front of him. "Y-yes sir," the woman replied, but then hesitated. "But sir, the gate-"

"Will be safe while I'm here," Jacob replied with a hint of scorn in his voice. "You have your orders, now move it before I reassign you to clearing out the latrines!"

"Yes sir!" Both guards replied, and then ran off without so much as a look back. Jacob watched them go while silently strangling a laugh before it left his throat. _Just like back home_, he thought briefly before turning to the gate. His bemusement turned to a feeling of helplessness as he got a good look at just how large the heavy wooden doors were. _I didn't really get to examine on the way in_, he darkly remembered. _And it sure as frig didn't have that bar across it; the thing's got to weigh more than I do in full armor._

He was already starting to sweat a little from the exertion of wearing the heavy plate, having lost the full trim of his training by using lighter chain mail for armor since leaving Kul Tiras. _Fargo would find that hilarious,_ Jacob sardonically mused about his father's master-at-arms. _He'd laugh and laugh while having me run another twenty laps around the town walls and following on horseback to make sure I didn't stop for a breather._

After some brooding, Jacob finally hit upon an idea. _Maybe… Well, she _is_ an engineer, right?_ With that thought, he turned and ran back for the stables. About halfway there though, he stopped to watch as a rather large group of soldiers began to descend down the ramp linking the two baileys, pausing only when Omiya stepped towards a woman Jacob finally recognized as captain Fairmount. _Right, double time_, the nobleman thought as he pushed himself forward in a hard run.

Moments later he practically stormed into the stables, and then promptly froze as he saw Tohopekaliga spin on a hoof and snap her rifle up to aim for his head. They both held still for only a moment before Toho lowered the weapon with a frustrated sigh. "Don't _do_ things like that around me," she said.

"Sorry Toho, but there's no time," Jacob said. "The gate's clear, but barred and it's too much for me, and I'm not sure we'd have enough time to see if you and I could do it together, since about half the hold's compliment is marching as we speak."

Toho's eyes widened a bit at that. "Here?"

"No, the equipment building," Jacob replied. "I think Omiya sent them there. Regardless, we need a quick exit, and I recall you are an engineer of a sort."

A wide, almost visceral grin spread along Toho's muzzle at that, and she nodded. "Not just an engineer, but one of the Goblin school," she said.

Jacob blinked for a moment as the memories of his first day with the tauren came to mind. "Oh crap," he uttered. "I just poured oil on the fire elemental, didn't I?"

"Worry about that later," Toho said as she took the reigns of her ravasaur and waved for Jacob to lead the kodo. "For now, there's stuff that needs to be blown up!" She added with girlish glee.

* * *

Fairmount watched with concealed satisfaction as her troops flawlessly deployed around the outbuilding. _When the war starts, we'll cut the Barrens in half_, she smugly thought while waiting for the soldiers to solidify their position. It again pleased her to see that it only took a few moments, and she confidently strode forward as soon as everybody was in position. "Attention in there!" Fairmount called, raising her voice. "Lay down your weapons and come out with your hands up, or we'll storm the place and cut you down!"

A silence fell upon the area, relieved only partially by the sounds of tense breathing and slight movement from the two score persons arrayed in a small area. Fairmount decided to live up to the first half of her family name and gave the prisoners a few long minutes to decide. _Come out fighting_, she found herself wishing. _A nobleman's son trying to slaughter his fellow man to defend a tauren will make the Horde look all kinds of threatening as no one will know the truth, and the unknown makes for a great source of fear._

Sadly – to her – the prisoners did not come out, and so Fairmount turned to the sergeant nearest to her. "Kenon, take four men and go root them out," she ordered.

"Yes sir!" The indicated sergeant replied before he turned to bellow at several soldiers under his command. The group quickly detached itself and dashed forward while several of their fellows sheathed swords and took out crossbows to cover them. Seconds later the sergeant smashed the door to the warehouse apart with his shield and ran in followed by the other men in quick order, and then… nothing.

Fairmount frowned as no sounds of battle came from the building. She was about to order a full-scale attack when the sergeant reappeared in the doorway. "The prisoners aren't here captain!" He shouted. "Just the guards!"

"What?" Fairmount yelled. "Why didn't they reply?"

"They were tied up and unconscious," the sergeant replied. "They're still out of it."

A moment of confusion passed through the assembled soldiers, and Fairmount felt it the most keenly out of them all. "But if they're not here…" She mumbled to herself.

A loud explosion from the main gate caused her to jump, and indeed startled everyone in the fortress. Fairmount whipped around in time to see a cloud of dust blocking her view of the main entrance to Northwatch.

"The gate!" She yelled. "Everyone to the gate!"

* * *

Jacob sat up with a groan that soon turned into a hacking cough as he inhaled a bit of pulverized wood and masonry. "Toho?" He called out, straining to peer through the clouds of dust to see if the tauren was all right.

As if in reply, Tohopekaliga sat up abruptly from off to his left. "Ha ha ha haa! BOOM!" She shouted as she raised the dust-covered goggles from her eyes. "I _love_ doing that!"

"You mean nearly killing us?" Jacob asked sardonically.

"No, making things explode!" Toho replied, looking over and giving the human a broad grin. "Isn't if fun?"

For a moment, Jacob had the brief sensation of complete unfamiliarity with the tauren. _It's like she's a different person,_ he thought briefly. He then shook such thoughts from his head as he stood up and turned to inspect the gate. Much to his satisfaction, Toho had blown only one of the huge wooden doors off of its hinges, leaving just enough space for them to move their mounts through, but not so much it left the gate indefensible. _Just because the captain's a bad person doesn't mean I want the whole place defenseless._

"Everyone to the gate!" The yell was clear, and Jacob suddenly remembered there were quite a few heavily armed men and women just across the bailey. "Time to go," he said, making a brief sprint to where they had left their mounts. Toho merely grunted an affirmation as her previous glee evaporated and experience and training took over. Determination set in as well, and she ran the few short yards to their waiting escape right after the human.

_I'm surprised they didn't bolt_, Jacob mused of the pack animals as he reached the kodo and promptly scuttled up into the saddle on its back. _I guess Toho must _really_ like her explosions if her animals are used to them_. Despite the situation and the disturbing implications of that realization, Jacob smiled a bit as he grabbed the reins and ushered his mount forward. Toho followed him by mere seconds, and soon both animals had squeezed through the opening in the gate. Once through, Jacob reined his kodo back a bit to wait for Toho to pull alongside him. "Where do we go?" He asked.

"North, to Ratchet," Toho said, snapping the reins on her ravasaur to urge it to move faster. Jacob barely had time to do the same with his kodo to keep up. "I know people there," the tauren added as they rode into the night.

* * *

Fairmount nearly stumbled over the chunks of wood and stone littering the ground around the gate. She had already stepped through the blasted portion and was the first out beyond the wall, and so was in time to see the two figures moving rapidly northward in the darkness, scarcely illuminated by the smaller of the two moons, the Blue Child, as the White Lady was hours from rising. "Confounded backstabbing Hordesmen!" She raged.

"I thought one was a human?" Jarrin asked as he walked through the gate, following several of the hold's soldiers.

The captain turned and spitted the mage with an evil glare. "I need you to teleport the combat team ahead of them," Fairmount said. "They won't be further than a mile by the time you do it."

"The whole team?" Jarrin asked, shocked. "Captain, teleporting follows the square laws of mathematics. Only the most powerful and talented mages can-"

"Shut it," Fairmount cut him off. "If you can't do the whole team, how many _can_ you teleport?"

Jarrin had to fight off an urge to sigh in frustration before he replied. "As I said, captain, there are certain laws of the arcane at work. I can teleport the whole combat team maybe six hundred feet, or I could teleport you and I halfway across Kalimdor. If you want something practical, I can get you and I and maybe four more about a mile before I expend all my available energy."

Fairmount nodded. "Set it up, then," she said, and then turned to the other soldiers coming out of the gate. "Sergeant Kenon, you and three men with me and Jarrin! Patrolmen mount up and follow the trail north! Everyone else, set defensive watch on the hold until our return!"

Jarrin listened to her give commands for a moment before he resigned himself and started chanting the necessary spell preparations. Even as he did so, however, his thoughts wandered to the words Omiya had spoken to him only a short time ago. _Is this how a war starts?_ He asked himself as the arcane energies began to coalesce around him. _If so, shouldn't it be stopped? _Can_ it be stopped?_

* * *

They didn't slow down until the hold was hidden behind a hill, and even then, they merely let their animals move at a trot instead of a flat run. "Are we still going fast enough?" Jacob asked, concerned.

"If they went straight to their horses, they'd still have to bolt at maximum speed just to get to us," Tohopekaliga explained. "Even then we'd see them coming from a ways away and have time to speed up ourselves, or ever find a place to hide."

"If you say so," Jacob said from the back of the kodo he rode. "How far is it to Ratchet?" He asked while trying to shift his position without falling off of the beast.

"Only about two day's travel," Toho replied. "We'll stop-"

A flash of light came from up ahead, interrupting Toho and startling both rides and animals alike. Both of the mounts stopped of their own accord and attempted to turn and flee and Jacob and Toho each worked to keep their respective animal under control. The huntress managed it easily enough, but Jacob, still relatively unfamiliar with the kodo and weighing considerably more than he was used to in his armor, lost his balance and slid from the saddle, letting out a loud grunt as he hit the ground.

"Jacob!" Toho called as she pulled her ravasaur around to face towards him. Anything else she would have said or done, however, was preempted by a now familiar voice. "Surrender or die!"

Jacob climbed back to his feet slowly and cast his gaze towards where the lights had popped up, and as he expected, six persons from Northwatch were standing in a line across the narrow trail leading north. "Captain Fairmount," Jacob called to the Alliance soldiers as he drew his sword and shield. "What a pleasant surprise. Perhaps next time you could leave a message with the seneschal next time you wish to drop in?"

"Your sarcasm is unappreciated, Vayo," Fairmount replied. "You're in deep now, boy. Aiding and abetting the escape of a prisoner is an executable offense!"

Jacob glanced around the area as the captain spoke, and he was happy to see Toho slipping off her ravasaur and hefting her gun. The kodo he'd been riding had wandered off, leaving him no cover save his shield and armor, and Toho looked to be sending her mount off to the side as well. "So what's the penalty for assassination, Fairmount?" Jacob asked.

"You kill me and another will take my place," the captain replied, and Jacob finally got a good bead on which one of the figures was her. "Like Farrik, maybe?" Jacob retorted. When Fairmount didn't reply right away, he pressed on. "Funny, I don't see him around here, even though he seemed pretty important when I met with you in the keep. Oh, that's right," Jacob added, turning up the sarcasm. "He's on the floor of your jail, along with his accomplice and the knives they were going to use to gut me."

One of the figures near Fairmount seemed to turn his head at the captain, who finally spoke. "He was sent to check on the Hordesman prisoner."

"So I take it 'checking' involves murdering prisoners in cold blood and any witnesses to the crime?" Jacob retorted.

"You're just digging yourself a deeper hole, Vayo," Fairmount countered. "Lying won't save you now."

Jacob laughed at that, and the Alliance soldiers seemed to rock back in surprise. "What a typical move by the hypocrite, to lie first and loudly, and then accuse your opponent of lying when he tries to present the truth." The young man shook his head emphatically at that to make sure the gesture was visible to the others in the darkness. "But then, a liar is always caught by his or her web of deceit. You have a mage there - you couldn't have ported here without one – why doesn't he pop back to the hold and see for himself what sort of condition Farrik is in, and more importantly, why he and two others had darkened blades and were visiting the jail with them while out of uniform?"

"Captain," the figure that had moved his head before. "Where _is_ the master-at-arms?"

Fairmount whirled on him in a heartbeat. "Now you listen here Jarrin!" She snapped out, her voice taking on a tone of hysteria. "I give the orders around here, and I ask the questions! Do your duty or I will have you arrested as well!"

This outburst startled the man who'd spoken up, Jacob saw. It also seemed to startle the other men in the formation, and they took a second to glance back before returning their attention to the escapees. Jacob glanced to his side and was unsurprised to see Toho aiming her rifle steadily towards Fairmount. She did seem to notice him looking at her out of the corner of her eye, and she glanced over long enough for Jacob to give her a tiny headshake. She nodded her head once to show her understanding and held her fire, but did not take her aim away from the captain.

Of course while this passed between Jacob and Toho, Jarrin was replying to his commander's outburst. "Captain, as your first officer I have the right and the duty to question any situation I find suspect, and as of late your behavior has grown increasingly suspect. Threatening to arrest me for asking abou-"

Fairmount had had enough, and she slapped him across the face. Jacob winced as, even at a distance of several yards, he could hear the crack of bone as Fairmount's plated fist slammed into unprotected flesh. "I have no time for your games, Jarrin!" She shouted. "I have come too far and done too much to let anyone stop them. Not you, and certainly not some squib and a Hordesman beast!"

At those words Jacob felt something in his mind snap into place, much as they had in the keep. Only now it was more profound as he recognized that he had the whole truth now. "You want a war," he said, barely loud enough to be heard at a distance, yet he could see the shift in Fairmount's stance well enough to know she – and the others with her – heard him. "Firing on merchant ships, harassing and attacking passing travelers, and now trying to kill me, they're all attempts to get one side shooting at the other; you _want_ the Alliance to go back to war with the Horde, don't you?"

"You're damned right I do!" Fairmount shouted. "The Orcs are a stain on the world, a filthy disease that doesn't belong on Azeroth! They pillaged and killed and burned and slaughtered their way across two continents and nearly destroyed all of humanity, all of civilization! And instead of wiping them out, we make _peace_ with them?" She spat at that, and stepped forward, ignoring both the incredulous looks on her soldiers and the injured mage rising behind her. "I don't care what their excuses are, I don't care how many lives it will cost, I won't rest until every single one of them lie dead and broken in the sand and all of their cities and towns are burnt to ash!"

"You're mad!" Jarrin said, his voice a pained garble of its previous self, but still understandable. _It must hurt like Hell to talk after being hit like that_, Jacob thought as Fairmount again wheeled around to glare at her first officer. "Mad? I saw those greenskinned savages kill my father and burn down half of my town, and now I'm told that we're _not_ to fight them, that we shan't have our revenge? I'm not mad, I'm the most sane person here!"

A moment of stunned silence fell over the area, and Jacob glanced nervously at the soldiers who had come with the two officers, looking for any indication of their loyalties. Unfortunately, the light of Azeroth's smaller moon wasn't quite enough to see the fine details on their otherwise impassive faces, and so the warrior tensed as Fairmount turned around and pointed her sword towards him. "You men take the cow; I'll handle the squib."

"No." The refusal, firm and final, came not from Jarrin, but from one of the armored men who'd come along with him and Fairmount. "The lieutenant is right, captain, in that we have a right to question orders," the man said, turning fully to face his captain and lowering his sword. "We also have a right to refuse orders, and I find yours to be illegal and immoral."

Fairmount seemed stunned as she looked over the other Alliance soldiers, and saw as they, too, lowered their swords one by one. "Sergeant, you will be court-martialed for this," The captain warned in an angry voice.

"I daresay I won't be the only one," the man sarcastically replied.

"Traitors, all of you!" Fairmount yelled, wildly looking about. "I've spent years on this, and I won't let any of you stop me," she added, and then rounded on Jacob, hatred in her eyes. "Especially not some Horde-loving prat!" With that, she dashed forward in a charge and brought her sword up to attack.

Tohopekaliga saw the captain's movement, and despite Jacob's earlier denial, she found no reason to withhold fire now. Fairmount moved quickly, but Toho was an experienced marksman, and it was almost trivial for her to keep the sights over the human's head and pull the trigger on her handcrafted rifle, causing a thunderous boom to break the night. Yet when she blinked her eyes clear of the muzzle flash, Toho was astounded to see that the captain was unharmed, and apparently uninterested in the tauren as she finished her dash and brought her two-handed sword down in an attempt to bisect Jacob. The male warrior deflected this attack with his shield and promptly began to back up but not run, intending to continue the melee fight.

_I never miss! At least not on something that close anyway,_ Tohopekaliga thought, and she quickly dropped her rifle down and began to reload it for another shot. Yet, even as she moved a sudden warm golden glow came from her side and a human hand grabbed her wrist; even through the mail bracers Toho could feel unnatural strength in the grip. Surprised, the huntress looked to her left and saw Omiya standing there, glowing staff in hand. "You cannot kill Fairmount, nor any other Alliance member this night," the priestess said firmly, her voice soft but powerful. "To do so would give the captain what she wants: a Hordesman responsible for Alliance deaths, and an excuse for renewed war. That must not happen, regardless of anything else." Omiya then released Toho's hand and looked over to where the other members of Fairmount's party stood. "Now excuse me while I tend to Jarrin's injury."

The tauren blinked dumbfounded as she watched the priestess move off, trusting Toho not to open fire again. For a brief moment, the huntress felt like betraying that trust, yet Omiya's words rang true, and Toho felt a pang in her chest as she realized she could not help Jacob in his fight. Worriedly, she turned to watch.

* * *

His shield rang a second time as Fairmount pressed the attacking, using her momentum to keep Jacob on the defensive. The rage and anger festering in her core fed the captain's strength, and her strikes came quickly and viciously, testing Jacob's guard and more than once finding a way through, leaving his plate armor to absorb the brunt of the blow. Even so, the sheer force pummeled his flesh right through the steel, and the warrior realized he would lose the fight and his life if the current state of affairs continued.

It was one of the few lucid thoughts in young Jacob's mind, as his training ascended to the fore. His shield arm moved more fluidly as he recognized the pattern of moves that Fairmount used against him, and both shield and sword moved out to parry or block her strikes with increasing effectiveness. Despite the urgency of the brutal fight, Jacob kept calm and remained as passive as possible while he continued to give ground.

His patience was finally rewarded, as Fairmount seemed to start to run low on energy. Then she made a mistake and overextended herself on a heavy blow that Jacob parried easily, sending the woman off balance. Seeing his opening, Jacob shifted his stance abruptly and took a step forward, planting his left foot right between Fairmount's own and his arm tensed as he slammed his shield forward, using his change of posture to throw the weight of his entire body behind the blow. Metal clashed upon metal, setting both shield and armored breastplate ringing, and with an audible grunt of surprise and pain Fairmount wheeled back, her arms splaying out as she fought to keep herself on her feet.

Jacob wasn't about to let the captain regain her composure, and he continued moving forward, sweeping his shield out of the way as he brought his sword forward from the parry, swinging it underhand in an arc that intersected the captain's larger weapon in her right hand. In her discombobulated state and poor stance the captain had no recourse as the impact tore the two-handed sword from her grasp and sent it flying behind her. Yet the captain wasn't willing to admit defeat, and she regained her footing enough so that she began to turn and arched her body in preparation to leap away from Jacob and reach for her sword.

Unfortunately for her, the male warrior wasn't through yet, and he turned his sword arm, using the continuing momentum of his disarming swing to accelerate a pirouette to the left. Spinning on the one foot, Jacob once again brought his shield up and drove its curved out shell into Fairmount's back as he finished his turn. Again, the increased momentum helped to improve the sheer force, though it was mitigated somewhat by Jacob's lack of solid footing. Fairmount, however, was already off balance and thus she was shoved forward and downward, slamming into the dirt. Jacob slipped back into a defensive stance as he finished his maneuver, but only a second later he realized it was unnecessary, as Fairmount remained on the ground. Her arms moved, reaching forward for her sword, which had landed a mere foot from her grasp, but she did not advance.

For a brief moment Jacob felt an odd sense of panic as he worried that he had broken the captain's back with his last strike. Then he heard a telltale gasp, and he relaxed a bit as he realized he'd simply knocked the wind out of the belligerent officer. Slowly and calmly, he walked around Fairmount until he reached the captain's weapon, and then kicked it further from her hands and pointed his sword at her ashen face. "It's over, captain," Jacob said simply, not trusting his ability to utter anything more complicated through the adrenaline haze.

"Indeed it is," a voice said from behind, and Jacob looked behind him to see Omiya and the soldiers from the keep walking towards the scene of the fight slowly. He tensed a bit, but relaxed as he saw that the men had their weapons out, but lowered. With them was a man in robes he recognized as the mage Fairmount had backhanded earlier, and Jacob was pleased to see that the priestess had healed him well. It was the mage who had spoken, and it was he who now stepped forward and looked down on Fairmount. "Captain, under my authority as your second in command, I am removing you from your position as commanding officer of Northwatch Hold for your blatant disrespect of orders, laws, and common decency."

"You backstabbing-" Fairmount began, as she had recovered from the stun to her solar plexus. Before she could continue, however, Omiya raised her staff and from it a ray of warm light washed over the captain, who went to sleep almost instantly. "I think we've had enough of her venom for tonight," the priestess wryly commented.

"Quite so," the mage said, and he turned to look over Jacob fully, allowing the latter to recognize him as Jarrin. "Now, what do we do with you and your friend?"

Jacob blinked at that, and then glanced off to the side, where he saw Tohopekaliga walking forward cautiously, her rifle also lowered. "You could always let us go?" Jacob asked irreverently as he turned back to the mage and gave him a wan smile.

Jarrin frowned at that, his eyebrows furrowing. He opened his mouth to say something, but it was Omiya who spoke first. "They really cannot go back to the hold," she said in a concerned tone, causing the others to look to her. "Fairmount and Farrik would not have been able to do what they did for so long if many of the others weren't at least sympathetic to their desires." The golden haired woman nodded towards the two escapees. "Their lives will be in danger of another sinister strike if they return with us."

"And really," Jacob added in a flippant tone. "Our only crime was simply arriving at Northwatch. Well, that and escaping, but really, sitting in a jail is boring when the guards aren't trying to kill you."

A corner of Jarrin's mouth ticked up briefly at that, but he remained serious as he thought for several moments. Finally, he seemed to come to some decision, and he turned to give the armed soldiers behind him a look. In response, they sheathed their swords and slung their shields, and Jarrin nodded as he turned back to face Jacob and Toho. "All right, all right," he said, and then sighed. "We'll tell the others the captain fell as we tried to pursue you and we stopped to make sure she was all right, thus letting you go."

Jacob felt a wave of relief wash over him, and he grinned at the older man. "Thank you."

Jarrin waved him off. "Dealing with the complexities of nobility that would come into play if we kept you is more than enough headache to be rid of you," he said. "We'll just send a report that you claimed to be a noble but we couldn't verify who before you, ah, left."

"And with that, you should get going," Omiya added. "The rest of the keep's offensive troops will reach here soon; you'd best be far away before then."

"You do not have to tell me twice," Toho said as she slung her rifle over a shoulder and turned to head for her ravasaur mount.

"Thank you for all of your help," Jacob said, bowing to both of the leaders who stood before him, before he too ran over to where 'his' kodo had wandered off to. Within minutes, he and Toho were riding north.


	7. Chapter 7

They rode for hours, pressing their mounts hard to gain as much distance between them and the hold in the shortest amount of time. Eventually, though, the animals' energy wore down and soon could barely move at even a meager walk. Still they did not stop, instead continuing through the early morning and on into daylight while cautiously looking around for signs of pursuit or ambush.

It was inevitable of course that they did have to stop as the day waned, in a way matching their declining strength. _Our second day awake straight_, Jacob thought tiredly as he climbed off the kodo with a groan. For a moment he had to steady himself against the massive reptile as his legs tried to give out, so tired was he from the long time without sleep, the fight to escape, and the long ride, but eventually the human remained standing through sheer force of will. "It's a good thing I fought Fairmount right away, rather than after that ride," Jacob grunted out.

"Oh? Tohopekaliga asked almost teasingly from where she was climbing – slowly – off of her ravasaur mount. "Afraid you'd lose after a tiny bit of sleep deprivation?"

"No," Jacob replied, deadpan. "I would have still beaten her. Only now I would have had to really work hard at trying to not run her through afterwards."

Toho chuckled a bit at that, though it was tempered by her own weariness. "Then we fortunate that no pursuit appeared."

Jacob tilted his head a bit at that, though he soon righted it when he felt the steel helm he wore pull at his tired neck muscles a bit too much for comfort. "Your language is slipping," he said carefully.

The tauren grunted at that and turned to take some things off of her mount. "I'm sorry, I do that sometimes when I am tired."

"No need to be sorry, Toho," Jacob said as he glanced around the small cul-de-sac in the side of a hill they'd taken refuge in. "Just letting you know, just in case," he added as he began to unceremoniously strip off his 'borrowed' armor.

"I appreciate it, I do," Toho replied. "For now, though, we should concentrate on setting up a decent camp and getting sleep."

"You don't need to tell me twice," Jacob grunted out. Then he took some furs from the kodo, unrolled them on the ground, and then fell down upon them. "There, camp's done," he said and then closed his eyes.

A brief silence met his proclamation, followed by the noise of Toho walking over to stand next to him. "You know, I only promised I would get you to Northwatch. I never said anything about keeping you alive after that," the tauren slyly spoke.

Jacob opened his eyes and smiled up at the huntress, who after a moment returned the smile. "You know you'd miss me," the human said.

"Only if my scope was misaligned," Toho retorted.

"Seems like it was last night," Jacob countered. "Or did you intend to miss the dear captain?"

Tohopekaliga snorted and turned to walk back to the ravasaur. "Omiya offered to take care of my gun, so I suspect she did something to the scope. I would never miss at that range otherwise!"

"I don't know," Jacob said teasingly from where he remained on the furs. "I've only seen you shoot maybe one thing in the time I've known you. And granted, it was a nice shot, but quilboar aren't exactly hard targets, being so ugly and all."

The click of a gun being readied startled the human, and Jacob turned his head to see Toho aiming her rifle in his direction. "Hey, look, I was just-" he began, but couldn't finish before the tauren fired.

The bullet whizzed past his head and filled his ears with a rush of noise almost as loud as the crack of the powder that propelled it. The crunch of the slug impacting ground to his right came soon after, though Jacob had barely recognized all three sounds together before it was all over. Blinking he looked up at Toho, who gestured with her head towards where she had fired. Slowly, Jacob turned his head around and saw not a few feet away from him a snake, or rather the remains of one that had the front part of its body blown apart by a heavy rifle slug.

"That," Toho said, walking back towards Jacob with her rifle casually held in one hand, "is why we take time to set up a proper camp, so as to not have nasty surprises creep up on us."

Jacob looked back to her. "I- I thought you said that Omiya messed with your rifle?"

Tohopekaliga brought her gun up in both hands and took a brief look at her scope. "Yes, apparently she did," the huntress said flatly.

The human frowned. "But, if she did, how did you aim that?" He asked, confused. "Wouldn't your shot have missed?"

"It would if I had aimed for the snake," Toho said, setting her rifle down. "But I aimed for your head instead."

No word spilled from Jacob's mouth for a moment before he finally remembered how to speak. "But, you didn't check your gun until just now. What if you had been wrong?"

Toho leaned over the human and smiled at him. "I wasn't wrong because I never," she inched lower and closer, "ever," and closer yet, "miss."

They both held still and silent for a time, Toho keeping an unnerving grin on her muzzle. Finally, she brought herself back upright and turned to retrieve her rifle. "Now help me set up camp properly."

"Yes ma'am," Jacob said quickly and despite his tired and aching body, jumped up to assist.

* * *

The next morning was already well underway by the time Jacob awoke. _Light, I feel like a dragon landed on me,_ the human thought as he slowly sat upright. In spite of his long slumber, his muscles ached as if he hadn't slept a wink, and his head felt as if it would split open at the slightest touch. _Isn't sleep supposed to be _restful_?_

He looked around the campsite then, deciding to put off further thought until he found something to fill the hole where his stomach used to be. His eyes alighted upon a cooking fire still smoldering and a pan filled with some sort of vittles he couldn't immediately identify, though his nose said they were several orders above edible. He also saw Toho sitting on the ground, her rifle in her lap and a toolbox opened beside her. The tauren's attention was almost entirely focused on her firearm, though when Jacob started to get up, she glanced over and nodded to him. "Good morning," Toho said as she lifted up the goggles she wore and rested them above her eyes. "I already ate, so feel free to have whatever's left in the pan."

"Thank you," the human mumbled as courteously as he could manage while he staggered over to the fire from where he'd lain for the night. "Do you feel as bad as I do?" Jacob asked as he sat down and reached for the pan and utensils.

"Probably not," Toho answered, sympathy in her voice. "But then, I didn't have my body hammered in a melee fight. As well, tauren tend to have better stamina than other races so the long time without sleep didn't bother me as much, I would wager."

Jacob grumbled something unintelligible, wishing he could think of a suitable epithet for the occasion. Instead, he just dug into the food and the world disappeared from his awareness for a few minutes while he ate. When Jacob finished and came up for figurative air, he saw Toho putting her tools away. "Fixed your gun then, eh?" He asked.

Toho nodded. "Yes, that- woman misaligned my scope. It has been corrected now," the huntress said.

Despite never being what one would call a 'morning person', Jacob chuckled a bit. "You must be quite upset if you almost called a priestess a bad name," he observed wryly as he leaned back to reach for his canteen where it sat near his bedding.

The tauren blushed, and Jacob marveled a bit that he could see the reddening of her face through the fur. _Good thing her ears turn down too,_ he thought, noticing Tohopekaliga's ears folding down to emphasis the emotion. "Yes, well," Toho began after clearing her throat. "A huntress tends to become attached to her weapon, seeing as it's her foremost means of combat. Anyone who damages or mishandles it, even a priestess, tends to make one feel threatened, no matter the reason for her intervention."

Jacob nodded and then took a long pull of water from his canteen. His mind clicked on something in the tauren's voice as he finished, and the human gave Toho an evaluating look. She noticed this, and turned away from Jacob as she reached into her shirt and pulled out her necklace. "I suppose you want to ask about this?"

He took a moment to think before he glanced down. "I don't want to pry," he began slowly.

"But you're curious," Toho stated, intending to finish Jacob's sentence as she looked back to him.

"I just want to understand," Jacob said earnestly, meeting her eyes. "Something about that, about you inspired Omiya to intercede on our behalves. If it had been any other symbol on that necklace, maybe I wouldn't care so much. But that's a symbol of the Church of the Light, something I was raised on, something that - despite my ignorance - I know isn't very popular amongst the Horde. It raises questions. Specifically, the kinds of questions one can't ignore about a traveling companion.

"At the same time," Jacob said, and then paused to gather his thoughts. "At the same time, those questions can be rather personal, and I don't want to upset you. Not just because I've been dependent on your help, but because…" He paused again, and then took in a breath and looked the tauren in the eyes. "Because you're my friend. That means a lot to me; in my life so far I've had precious few I could call friends, given my family's position, so every one I make is important to me. I don't want to risk that by offending you by prying too much."

Toho looked surprised at Jacob for a moment after he finished, and then slowly stood up. Briefly, Jacob worried that he had overstepped himself, but that worry disappeared as the tauren walked over to the fire and sat down on the opposite side of its smoldering coals from Jacob. "It warms my heart to hear you call me friend, Jacob," she began shyly. "I've thought of you as my friend as well. Not just acquaintance, not just ally, but _friend_," she added, and then paused to nod to the human. "And because of that, I will share with you the story of my tribe so that you may understand what Omiya was referring to back in the jail."

Jacob absorbed Toho's words for a moment and then smiled at her. "I would be honored to hear it," he said with a brief bow of his head.

Toho smiled back and then glanced up to the sky for a moment to compose her thoughts. Then she returned her gaze to Jacob and then took a breath and began to speak. "Unlike the other tribes of the shu'halo – that is what we call ourselves in our native language, by the way," she added the last for Jacob's sake, "the Starchaser tribe is relatively new to our people, and we trace our origins to one bull who lived many, many generations ago, named Soren. It is said that even when he was young, Soren was different from other shu'halo, that he often wandered away from camp alone to study the world around us. That, of course, wasn't unusual – our shamanistic teachings and connections with the spirits will often lead an individual out to commune with them in peace, or to observe and learn from nature. Soren, however, went further. While he shared in the ways all shu'halo had, he felt there was more to learn beyond the shamans' teachings, that there was a fundamental order to the world we were overlooking in our adherence to tradition. It was said he figured out how to find water when the spirits weren't cooperating, and that he always knew where to find the best flint for arrowheads and spear tips. But still he wanted to learn more, and he continued to spend time alone away from camp.

"It was during one of these times he stayed away late, until Mu'sha – the larger moon you humans call 'the White Lady' – had set and her companion, Lu'sha – what you call the Blue Child – was high in the sky. At this time, he saw a shooting star, but where those usually are but quick flashes across the heavens, Soren watched as this one grew bright and then fell to the earth close enough for him to hear a calamitous noise and to feel the ground shake. Knowing this was unheard of Soren ran to where he had watched the star fall, taking the rest of the night to do so. When he arrived he found a warm crater in the ground but oddly enough, no star. Curious, he climbed into the crater, and upon looking through it he found an odd rock that unlike the others looked partially melted and was quite heavy for its size.

"Now, as I said, Soren was no stranger to the old ways, either. He knew there was something special about the rock, and he dug it out from where it was half-buried and took it aside from the crater and used what he had learned about communing with the spirits to see if he could speak with the rock itself. At first it was hard as the spirit of the rock was almost incomprehensible, but Soren remained patient, and eventually he saw the rock's story. It had formed not out of the hot innards of the world, nor called into being by elementals or wizards or dragons or even titans. Instead, it had been born in the deep dark, the silent and empty space between worlds. Long had it existed, cold and alone, until Azeroth's gentle but unyielding grasp pulled it in, drawing it towards her welcoming embrace. The air burned it, so fast it had moved, and it had glowed until it hit the ground and in doing so, had created a mark upon the land greater than anything it had done previously in its existence.

"Because of this communing, Soren realized that shooting stars were not stars at all, but rocks formed in the deep dark. Excited by this, he took the rock and returned to his tribe, and told them all of what had happened, and what he had learned." Tohopekaliga paused for a moment then, her face showing that she was gathering her thoughts. "Sadly, many did not believe him, and others mocked him for 'chasing after stars.' Soren, though, knew he had the truth, and he indeed reveled in their nickname for him and took it as his own.

"The rest of his tale is more mundane but no less important as Soren found love in a woman who shared his curiosity, and they created the first Starchaser family. Eventually, the Starchasers grew not only through birth, but also as others from other tribes who felt much as Soren had gravitated towards his family, and within a few generations we had become a tribe in our own right, and have lived separately from the other tribes ever since." The huntress paused and then blushed slightly and grinned at Jacob. "Or, at least that's how the tribal elders tell the story."

Jacob smiled at her and nodded. "It's a good story, and I think you told it well," he said. Then his smile faded into a look of confusion. "But I must beg your pardon, as I am not sure how that relates to the matter at hand."

"I was getting to that," Toho replied with mock irritation. "I told you that story so I could tell you this one," she added, and then took a bit more time to compose her thoughts. "Unlike the story of my tribe's creation, this one is far more recent. It does, in fact, focus on my grandfather when he was a young bull, barely past the rites of the Earthmother. At that time the Starchaser tribe had been camped along the coast of the Barrens, very close to where we are now, actually," Toho added this last with a pensive look around, as if seeing the area for the first time. "Anyway, my grandfather Kissimmee had been walking along the shore, out on his own reclusive walk to meditate on his life, when he came across strange wooden debris he did not recognize. Curious, he searched through it, and found amongst the wreckage a being that was smaller than he, with furless, pale skin and adorned in clothing of an unrecognizable nature.

"This figure was alive but unconscious, and my grandfather had a worried feeling that the being would perish if left alone. So he picked up the odd creature and carried it back to camp, and explained to the other tauren what he had discovered. The tribal elders were unsure of what to make of the being, or of the situation, though like all tauren we could not just turn the creature away to almost certain death. So my grandfather was told to take care of it.

"Soon after, the being woke up, and promptly began to talk in a language unknown to my people at the time. Confused and unsure, my grandfather and his family did their best to try and understand the being, which drew pictures in the dirt in an attempt to communicate. Eventually, the being gave up, and started gesturing to objects until my grandfather realized he was trying to learn _our_ language.

"This began an odd period, where the being was doing his best to learn our language, but still couldn't always make himself understood. Furthermore, he seemed insistent on joining in on any work the tribe would let him do. It was… embarrassing at first, as he did not understand the skills our people used. But he persisted, never got upset or angry even when some of the youths in the tribe made things hard for him, and continued to learn both language and skills.

"Eventually, he learned enough to communicate properly, and let my grandfather and the others know his name was Arthur. Arthur told his tale one night, first to my grandfather, then to his family and anyone else who wished to hear it; he told of coming across the sea in a sailing vessel that was wrecked by a storm. He came from a land to the east where his kind, called humans, lived, which he had willingly left the comfort and safety of to travel into the west on a rumor that the land of Kalimdor existed and upon it lived people who had not heard of the Light. It was hard for him to explain this, as Taur-ahe lacks words for some concepts, but in the end he made it clear he was charged with a sacred mission to spread the word to all who would hear."

Tohopekaliga paused and looked contemplative for a moment. During the silence, Jacob cleared his throat. "I suppose that did not go down well?"

"Somewhat," Toho admitted. "Naturally many thought this Arthur as arrogant, or even invidious, come to corrupt us with tales to draw us away from our traditions. However, Arthur was calm even in the face of their anger, and he simply stated he had come to show the path of the Light, and that any who would chose to walk it were welcome, and any who chose not to, he said were also welcomed, for the Light cared for all, even if their hearts turned away from the teachings. He asked that he simply be allowed to remain and live as he had with us, saying he felt the Light had saved him from the shipwreck and guided my grandfather to a place where he could render aid. Arthur felt he was where he needed to be, even if ultimately no one listened to him, for the Light knew what it was doing, and he would trust in it blindly.

"His firm faith, eagerness to work, and respect for those who did not wish to listen to his words of preaching ultimately made the elders agree to let him stay. It also helped that as time went on Arthur asked and learned about our shamanistic ways, and he himself witnessed the connections we are able to make with our ancestors and elements in visions and rituals. Surprise came to the tribe, though, when some of our ancestors' spirits sought Arthur out, and many spoke well of him. The spirits of the elements were more ambivalent, but they did not react strongly to the human, as one would expect them to do so if he had desired to break our connections with them. Because of this, some individuals in the tribe began to listen to Arthur's words with open minds and hearts.

"Yet, the greatest test would come much later. Arthur had been with the tribe for nearly two years, and he had made some headway, especially as he talked with the spirits of our ancestors and began to address how his Light could be the ultimate authority while the spirits still held sway over many more immediate concerns." Tohopekaliga paused and chewed on her lip for a moment. "I think I shall spare you the details, for now. Suffice it to say, Arthur was starting to make some converts, though most remained steadfast against it. My grandfather was not amongst those early converts, but he had become good friends with Arthur through mutual respect and of course his obligation to watch after the human.

"Then the day came during one of our tribe's moves where misfortune befell us; a tribe of Centaur attacked when we were vulnerable while crossing an open stretch of land. Their charge was quick, and my people barely had time to form a defensive circle around the vulnerable members, the young and the old, the weak and the sick. Yet these same hapless tauren seemed to be the objective of the centaur, and they threw the main thrust of their attacks at the weak over and over again, trying to break through the line. Why, you may wonder?" Toho asked, and then shrugged. "No one really knows, but the centaur are a hateful race who have used such tactics before in order to demoralize our warriors, to make them easier to hunt down and kill.

"Whatever their motivations, my people fought them hoof and nail. Our shamans called upon the spirits for aid, but the elements are somewhat fickle even on a good day, and on that day they seemed almost disinterested in our defense. They helped, of course, but so much less than they could have, and it didn't seem enough to stem the centaurs' attack.

"Then, as my grandfather described it, Arthur walked through the melee seemingly from nowhere. The tribe had seen him enveloped in the first wave and so had thought him dead. Yet there he was striding through the centaur, untouched and radiating a warm, golden glow that seemed to surround him like armor. In his hand he wielded a mace crafted for tauren hands, and he needed both of his to us it, but use it he did as he smashed a path through the centaur as if they were hares best by a lion. Grandfather Kissimmee said that the sight filled him and the other warriors with hope and strength, and they fought back with renewed vigor.

"The battle lasted the rest of the day, but Arthur did not tire. His mace crushed and broke the enemy, yet every chance he got he would pause and bend his head in prayer, and light would flow from him to a defending tauren, giving him or her strength and healing wounds. With his help the Starchasers fought with such force that the centaur finally broke and fled, but even then Arthur continued to astound. Grandfather told me that he was close enough to the human then to hear his prayers, and he heard him asking the Light for an opportunity to end the threat against his flock by slowing the centaur. Then he sprung forward in a blur and chased down as many centaur as he could reach, hitting them with enough light-reinforced strength to stun and slow them so that the pursuing warriors behind him could finish them off. When it was all over with, hundreds of centaur lay dead on the ground, but precious few tauren had succumbed.

"However, it seemed that there would be payment for our victory more dear than my grandfather had thought at first, for Arthur came back to the tribe dragging his feet. The last centaur he had chased down had managed to break through his tiring defense and speared him through the gut. Grandfather Kissimmee said that the warriors of the tribe were doubly shocked at Arthur's wound; firstly for the fact he had been hurt at all after the display of his prowess, and secondly for the fact that even with so terrible a wound on one so small he managed to return on his feet. When he succumbed to his wounds and fell to the ground my grandfather and others went to him and brought him with as the tribe resumed its migration.

"That night the shamans of the tribe did their best to help, but they could only soften Arthur's pain against the inevitable. Despite his strange appearance, customs and teachings, the time the human spent with my tribe had endeared him to them. His tireless and selfless defense of those who had reason to doubt and hate him and his ways while the traditional paths failed us put into the minds of many that perhaps he had the right ideas after all. He moved the hearts of many, including my grandfather who came to visit late that night."

Again, Tohopekaliga paused in her telling, this time to look down at the fire. Jacob waited patiently as she picked up a stick and rearranged some of the dying coals. "This is basically my grandfather's story," she said quietly, not looking up from the fire. "He tells this next part with such emotion that I feel almost embarrassed repeating it. I just feel it's not my place."

"Some stories are like that," Jacob gently interjected. "It's hard to tell one that belongs to someone else. But so far you've done a good job. I'm sure your grandfather would be proud."

Toho looked up and smiled at the human. "I'll be sure to ask him next time I see him," she said. "We tauren tend to live a long time, and he is still around. Stays in Thunder Bluff now, but that is a story for another time.

"Now, back to where I left off," Tohopekaliga continued. "My grandfather went and spoke to Arthur and asked him, if he could heal others in the midst of battle, could he not heal himself now? Arthur replied that he had tried, but the blessing had not come, so he figured it was simply his time. He said that the Light knew what it was doing and things would be fine." She paused again, briefly. "When my grandfather tells this story, at this time he recounts his memories of the brave human and all that impressed and amazed him. He speaks of how Arthur had come across the sea seeking to bring faith and hope to hostile strangers, of how he humbled himself to do menial tasks and labor, of how he endured the slings of anger and hatred towards himself and his faith and still extended the hand of friendship, and how at the end, he had fought more bravely than any tauren warrior for those same people who hated him. And after all of that, he would gladly meet his end with a stoic acceptance worthy of our people and in blind faith that everything would be all right. The sheer nobility of it all moved grandfather more than any battlefield prowess." Toho paused again, this time to reach up and wipe a hand against her eyes. "It still moves me as well.

"As for my grandfather, he told me of how so profoundly it affected him that he knelt down at the spot and prayed. Not to the ancestors, or to the spirits of the elements, but to the Light for the first time for intercession to save his dear and noble friend. He told me that the answer was immediate and overwhelming: his heart filled with fathomless warmth, and he could feel his very soul swell as the essence of the Light touched him. Grandfather said he was compelled to place his hands over Arthur's wound, and he stared in amazement as it healed within seconds and color returned to his friend's skin."

Silence fell over the two travelers then as yet again Toho took a break in her retelling. Jacob saw that she was wrestling with what to say next, and so waited patiently until the tauren huntress resumed. "Many witnessed this miracle, including Arthur himself as he remained conscious through the event. He stood up then in the silence that followed and laid his hands on my grandfather's shoulders and bid him to rise. Arthur then said that the Light clearly favored my grandfather to grant such a boon, that this proved that he- Arthur – was right in believing that the special connection we tauren shared with the spirits of the world by no means made us outcasts to the Light. He said nothing else to the crowd that had gathered, but simply asked to speak with my grandfather in privacy, where he told my ancestor about how a new path opened for him, and for all tauren. And that he would teach my grandfather and anyone else everything he knew, more than he had been willing to share until then lest he commit the error of giving live steel to children. He would share not only the teachings of the Light, but also the techniques and prayers and all the scripture he could remember. Of course, to help understand this he would also teach the Common tongue of humans to help understand concepts that Taur-ahe did not have.

"After that night, there was no shortage of converts, at least amongst the Starchasers." Tohopekaliga tilted her head in thought for a moment and then frowned. "The other tribes were less eager to hear of the new ways. As I told you, the Starchasers have always been just a bit different from the other tribes, a bit more open to new ideas, and this already marked us as strange. These new ways Arthur offered were so strange and alien that we were shunned by other tauren for a while, but it also served a greater purpose as well by encouraging almost my whole tribe to convert, as being ostracized merely for not hating the new teachings tended to make my fellow tribesmen question the old tenants of shamanism.

"After some time though, Arthur – who was getting old – advised caution, and even circumspection. He understood, as did our elders, that strange revelations have a tendency to frighten those who are not ready for them. He said that the best we could do was 'live by example' while remaining true to the teachings. 'The Light works over a period of time we cannot fathom', he told us. He also said, "the seed of faith has been planted in Kalimdor, in the hearts of the Starchasers. Like all seeds, it needs some time underground to grow strong before it reaches into the light of day to stand proud for all to see.'" Toho nodded to herself at that. "It was sage advice, as the other tribes were suspicious of our changes, and so we took the new lesson to heart, to wait until the time grew right to share our faith with the other tribes. When that would be, we did not know, but faith told us it would come.

"Sometimes I think that time might come soon," Toho added, her voice changing in such a manner that Jacob realized she was voicing her own thoughts now. "The arrival of the orcs and trolls and their reformed Horde brought all of our tribes together under one banner, and together we have faced great foes and won. Yet, the orcs remain suspicious of anything relating to humans. So we remain patient, trusting that when the time is right, we shall know."

Once more a lull fell over the camp as Jacob absorbed Toho's stories, and as the latter drank some water from her canteen. "Those are remarkable stories," Jacob said quietly to break the silence. "Especially that Arthur… He sounds like a paladin, but this would have been decades before their order was created in the Second War."

"Yes, but he never said he was a paladin," Toho replied. "Grandfather Kissimmee said that Arthur claimed to be a warrior in his youth, but had turned away from violence to join the Church of the Light. I suspect if there were any similarities between him and a 'real' paladin, it would be due to the fact that he came from the same martial and religious traditions, and so behaved similarly to the later order."

Jacob blinked at that. "That is, uh-"

"More studied than you expected from me?" Toho asked, a mischievous glint in her eyes signaling that she enjoyed surprising the human. "It was only natural that after contact was made with the orcs and later the Alliance that Starchasers like myself would seek out to learn more about our brothers and sisters of the Light, especially to fill out the missing scriptures. I've managed to acquire some human books on history in general and of the Order of the Silver Hand specifically, myself."

"Hence why you know so much about the similarities," Jacob added, smiling at the tauren and receiving one back in return. "But after all of that, you still haven't answered one question: what about your necklace?"

Tohopekaliga chuckled at that, though her expression saddened a bit. "After all of that, it's quite simple. Arthur passed on some years before the Third War came to Kalimdor, and as he lay on his deathbed he bequeathed the necklace to my grandfather. Later, when I was about to set out to Camp Narache for my initial training and rites, grandfather gave it to me and said he believed it would keep me safe." The huntress smiled and looked down as she picked the necklace up and held it out from her chest to study. "And I suppose it has, if it got Omiya to help us."

"Indeed," Jacob added. "Although she seemed rather-"

"Strange," Toho said, completing the human's sentence. Jacob nodded to her. "Aye. I don't suppose you have any stories about her?" He asked in a jovial tone.

Again, Toho chuckled. "I am afraid not. She is a mystery to me and mine, as well."

"Humph," Jacob grumbled. "Well, just one more in a world filled with them, I suppose," he added.

"It seems so," Toho said, and then slowly stood and stretched. "Anyway, now that story time is over, we should break camp and continue to Ratchet. We might just make it there by nightfall if we hurry."


	8. Chapter 8

This time the ride was smooth and measured, and so Jacob had some time to think about his companion's stories, and what they meant. He still did not know quite what to make of it all, but he believed he would in time. _Well, father wanted me to get out and see the world,_ the human thought as he and Toho wound their way through some hills in the withering daylight. _Turns out I'm seeing a part of it that I don't think anyone outside it has seen before_. He glanced over at Toho then and smirked at her back as she led the way. _And I don't mean the geography. How many people can say they've had a glimpse into the secret history of a distant people?_

The thought crossed his mind that the tauren might have been lying to him, but Jacob dismissed it immediately. _After the things I've seen, what we've been through together as friends, I can't see any deception or indeed, any reason for deception in her actions_. There had been plenty of times for Toho to double-cross him, and certainly she could have simply run into the night when Jacob had fallen to the ground in front of Fairmount and her men, but she had stayed and stood with him against superior numbers. _If she had been anything but truthful with those stories, she never would have had the wherewithal to stand by my side._

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted then as Toho took a small turn off the path and started guiding her ravasaur up the side of a small hill. Jacob guided his animal after her, but felt a pang of curiosity. "Why are we going this way?" He asked with a raised voice.

"Just trust me," Toho called back.

Jacob chuckled wryly at that. "The last time one of us used that line it didn't turn out so well," he said back to her.

"There's a first time for everything to work right," the huntress answered with mirth in her voice. "Almost there."

Jacob decided to hold his tongue for the moment and simply concentrated on following his guide up the hillside. Fortunately Toho was right and it didn't take long until they came to a stop and the huntress dismounted and started the last few feet to the top of the hill. Perplexed but still curious, Jacob followed suit until he got to the top and froze.

A coastal plain spread out in front of him leading from the base of the hills he stood atop to the north for as far as he could see, framed by a range of low hills dividing it from the interior of the continent on the left and the ocean to the right. But by far what caught Jacob's eyes the most was the rather ramshackle assortment of buildings that spread from ocean to hill at one place along the plain. The dying rays of the sun were starting to retreat behind the barrier hills, casting the town in deepening gloom that was quickly annihilated by lamps of both the oil-fired and electrical variety being ignited across the town. Docks along the waterfront held several ships of various origins, and what Jacob could make out of the mass of people in the streets – still crowded even at the late hour – he could see that nearly every size and shape one could find on a sentient being of Azeroth was represented.

"Ratchet," Tohopekaliga said simply. "You will find no greater hive of scum and villainy." She tilted her head for a moment and then spoke again. "Well, except for Booty Bay, of course. And Undermine. And, well, _any_ Goblin town really," she added somewhat offhandedly. "We shall have to be careful."

"And this is the place you wanted to head to?" Jacob asked skeptically.

"You'd rather stay behind in Northwatch?" Toho asked, giving him a sidelong glance.

Jacob chuckled wryly at that. "No, I suppose not," he admitted. "So, what are we here for?"

"Supplies for myself," Toho replied, and then turned to face Jacob fully. "And to get you on a ship home, of course. Nothing sails from Ratchet directly to Kul Tiras all that often, but the _Maiden's Fancy_ makes regular runs between here and Booty Bay, and at least from there you can catch another ship north or just ride through Stranglethorn Vale until you reach Stormwind."

The human nodded at that. "Sounds good," he said, and then waved towards the town. "Lead on."

* * *

The day had fully retreated by the time they rode through the outskirts of Ratchet after passing grumpy-looking goblins on guard duty. Here the buildings were mostly houses of various families of differing wealth arranged in a hodge-podge fashion with shops, pubs, and taprooms randomly mixed in. There were few people on these streets who weren't simply going between one place or another as quickly or as drunkenly as possible.

Riding onward they started weaving through more and more foot traffic as they approached the waterfront. Unlike in the outskirts the people here seemed more relaxed and casual, though whenever Jacob took a long enough look at some he saw that many simply wore this expression as a disguise; their eyes moved constantly, always looking for something or someone. Whether threat or victim or both, the human could not say, but he decided to be neither and simply let his eyes slide off such persons to observe the buildings around him. Here the shops were still open, and liable to be that way throughout the night. Bars, taprooms, pubs, brothels, even fighting rings filled in the space between the shops, and all of the structures were at least two stories tall or greater so as to cram more commercial or residential space into the heart of the small city. Such design philosophy seemed insane, yet prudent, as the streets were filled with beings of nearly every sentient race engaged in every action, exchange, and transaction one would expect in any bustling settlement.

By the time Toho led him to a large stable building – unmistakable in design as well as stench – Jacob's head was swimming from the sensory overload. _I must have spent too much time out in the wilderness_, the human thought as he dismounted at Toho's urging and waited patiently while she dickered with the goblin who owned the stables. After some conversation in a tongue he didn't understand she handed a couple of coins over and gave the goblin the reins of her ravasaur. At a gesture from her Jacob did likewise, getting an appraising look and then a nod from the small green being. Jacob nodded back, and then followed Toho as she started moving down the street and then took a right into an alley. They negotiated the winding, even more chaotic alleyways for a bit until finally they stopped in front of a battered building with a simple graphic sign indicating booze of some kind. "Here," Tohopekaliga said. "This place is owned by a friend of mine. He's a troll, but like most of the Darkspear he doesn't have the same blind hatred for other races that most other troll tribes have. Also," she reached down and touched a bag on her belt. "Like most businessmen in Ratchet, he turns a blind eye to such things when it comes to profit."

"I see," Jacob replied. "So may I ask what is the purpose of visiting here?" He asked respectively.

"Same reason we're in this town," Toho replied, and then started moving towards the door. "Places like this are where you can best learn the background gossip that lets you negotiate deals and find out which ship is going where."

"I see," Jacob said as he followed and entered the tavern behind her. Once inside though he had to pause as a wave of smells assaulted his nose. Smoke, food, incense, and the natural body odors of every patron all combined to make Jacob feel as if he had walked into a brick wall, but he forced himself to endure and he took a long look around the room.

It looked like almost every other tavern Jacob had ever been in, and he half suspected that barkeeps around the world simply reused the same design over and over again. The main room was large and open, save for support beams and the many tables and chairs that graced it. Along one wall there was a bar and behind it were the shelves that held the high-end booze. Almost half the seats and barstools were filled with a mix of all the known races, and the room was filled with the buzz of the typical noises one would expect in any place where beings gathered for food and drink.

Jacob found himself feeling a bit overwhelmed again, but he pushed the feeling back as he followed Toho. The pair wound through the tables and seats until finally they arrived at the bar and with a gesture from the tauren, sat down. Within seconds, a tall, lanky figure moved down the bar to stop in front of them. "Tohopekaliga, my good girl, whatjoo be doin' here?" The blue-skinned troll asked with a smile on his tusked face.

"Hello again, Woxlox," Toho said, smiling back at the flame-haired barkeep. "Just passing through, thought I'd drop by for a visit and information."

"Well it be always a good thing ta hear from you," Woxlox said, and then turned and gave a far more calculating look at Jacob. "And who be dis sittin' next to ya?"

"A friend," Toho said forcefully before Jacob could speak. "And part of the reason I'm here and not strung up by some over-eager Alliance soldiers."

"Oh really?" Woxlox asked, his countenance taking on a more charitable look. "Well, you always be da one to make da strange friends, I see," he added, looking back to the tauren with a smirk. "So before da business, you want food?"

Toho nodded. "And a stiff drink. Just one, though, I'll need to keep my wits tonight." She turned to nod at the human. "And whatever Jacob here wants. I'll pay for it."

Jacob frowned at that. "I can pay for myself, thank you," he said indignantly.

"You can, but you won't," Toho replied evenly, and then turned to give Woxlox a look. "Two dinners and that drink."

The troll seemed a bit disappointed, but quickly nodded. "Okay den, I be back soon," he said and then walked off. Jacob gave an irritated look to his friend, but Toho spoke first. "He gives me a good discount due to being a friend of his, and also having saved his life once," the tauren explained, looking back at Jacob. "You, on the other hand, would have paid full price. If you really want to you can pay me back later, though I would advise you to save your coin for paying your way back across the ocean."

Jacob blinked at that and sat still for a moment to consider. "I see," he said sheepishly. "Thank you."

"Think nothing of it," Toho said with a wave. "You're a friend, and that is important to me, as well," she added, nodding once towards the human. "And friends take care of one another, do they not?"

"Indeed," Jacob replied with a grin. "Although I wish that for once that I could reciprocate now and again."

"Perhaps in due time you shall," Tohopekaliga allowed. Then she fell silent as Woxlox returned carrying a bottle in one hand and two mugs in the other, and two plates covered in food balanced on his arms. "'Ere ya go, two dinnahs and something ta drink," the troll said gaily as he carefully placed these items before Toho and Jacob. "Anyting else you be lookin' for?"

"Just one more thing," Tohopekaliga replied, and waited until she had the troll's full attention. "Is Blackie back in town?"

Woxlox's face took on a wary look, but he nodded. "Aye, but what do ya want wit dat one?"

Toho smiled sweetly. "Just some after dinner entertainment," she said in an innocent tone.

The troll scoffed at that, but he shrugged. "Your business, Toho. Blackie be back, hangin' out at da Broken Keel up on da south rise."

"I know where that is," Toho affirmed. "Thanks, Wox. How much do I owe you?"

"For you? Three silver," he said easily. The tauren nodded, reached into her coin purse, and took out four coins. "Here," she said, handing them over.

"I say three," Woxlox protested, though he didn't refuse the extra coin.

"The fourth is for you to keep Jacob here from getting his head cut off while I visit Blackie," Tohopekaliga explained. "He's still new on this side of the Great Sea so he still needs a bit more seasoning."

In light of their most recent words Jacob held his tongue at this, and simply waited patiently as Woxlox gave him another appraising look. "Alright den. He don' look like a dumb one, at least."

Jacob gave the troll an annoyed look. "I guess that's a compliment?" He asked.

"Big mouth on him, though," Woxlox added, ignoring Jacob as he turned back to Toho. The tauren chuckled slightly at that. "Now you see why I'm giving you a silver for it."

Jacob flushed a bit at that, but he decided to hold his tongue and instead looked down at his food and slowly began to eat. Toho followed suit after a quick thanks to Woxlox and their meal was spent in silence. After they finished, Jacob looked over to Toho. "So, I take it you're going to be off to see this 'Blackie'?"

The tauren nodded. "He has connections throughout the town. A bit of a scoundrel, but so long as you just do a simple business transaction – money for information, in this case – he's safe enough to deal with. I'll find out which ship is going where and all the sundry information, and then come back here."

Jacob nodded. "And you want me to stay here?"

"For simplicity's sake, yes," Toho replied. "Blackie is not an easy man to deal with, and he makes money off of information as much as he does piracy. If I bring you, he'll be suspicious of my helping you and will try to pry, one way or another. If I go alone, he'll be merely curious but not think much on it as lots of people come to him for such things every day." She took a quick swig from the bottle then, and shook herself slightly. "I always need something to take the edge off before I see the annoying little scumbag, though."

The human chuckled at that and got a look from Toho for it. "Sorry. I'm just thinking of times in the past where I felt that way about some persons I know," Jacob said with a grin. Toho grinned back and nodded. "Well I should be off then, before the food in my stomach makes me want to sit and sleep the rest of the night," she said and then stood. "Just hang around here in the tavern and try not to talk to anyone other than Wox, okay?"

"I hear ya," Jacob said, raising his mug in salute. "Good luck."

* * *

Jacob sat at one end of the bar, near where it merged into an interior wall that separated the main room from the kitchen, and looked over the interior of the tavern for the umpteenth time, having succumbed to boredom for some time. _At least it's interesting to see all these races I've never seen before_, he thought, still feeling curious towards all the new things he was experiencing. _Growing up I only really saw humans, and occasionally a dwarf or elf. Now I see dwarves, trolls, orcs, both kinds of elves, goblins, and humans as well all in this room alone. At the very least, I've definitely gotten out and seen the world like dad wanted._

At this thought the human shifted around in his seat and turned to stare at the racks of liquor behind the bar again. _Yup, I've definitely seen the world, or enough of it to give me a new perspective… So why do I feel like going home now would be a mistake?_ He had felt the pang of uncertainty the moment Toho had left the tavern, and Jacob had been mulling over it since. _I've gone out and seen things, I've met people and made friends including, amazingly enough, a tauren. But it feels like something is left undone, like there's business here I need to take care of._ For a moment he wondered if it was because he desired revenge against the quilboar for what they did to his previous traveling companions, but Jacob dismissed that with a shake of his head. _They're just stupid little pig-men. Oh, don't get me wrong, if I come across another town of theirs in my travels I'll set the blasted thing on fire and cut down any who run away close enough to me to catch, but actually going out and seeking a place to do that? Seems rather futile to make that the only reason to be out here._

_But why? What am I missing?_ He brought up the mead he'd been nursing and took another sip from it. As he did, the troll Woxlox came out of the kitchen and took a long look around. "So, I see you ain't ticked off anyone yet," he wryly observed.

"I am sorry if I disappoint," Jacob replied flippantly, smirking at the taller being. Woxlox scoffed and shook his head. "Well you wouldn'ta be a friend of Toho if you weren't half sane, at least," he observed.

Jacob raised an eyebrow at that. "I take it she doesn't have many friends then?"

The troll gave him an odd look for a moment, and then laughed. "Dat be a good one," he said. "But naw, she be an odd one, that tauren," Woxlox continued, and then leaned in towards the human. "She be a bit touched in da head, you know. Gets visions of things that don' be real, den she tries ta build 'em." Woxlox shook his head at this. "Good girl, though, and a good friend. Wouldn't trade her for da world. Now, my wife on da other hand, I'll trade you her for five gold and a mule."

Jacob blinked at that and found he had no ready answer to such an offer. After a moment though, he saw the troll's tusked face split in a grin, and replied in kind. Before either could say another word, though, a rolling pin flashed out from the kitchen entrance and slammed down hard on Woxlox's head with a loud thump.

"Augh!" Woxlox yelled, hands going up to grab the wounded spot. "What in da name o' da spirits!" He yelled.

"I hear you talkin' out dere!" A voice, accented like a troll's but distinctly feminine, came from just inside the kitchen entrance where Jacob couldn't see. "You tink you be funny talkin' about sellin' me? You been sippin' too much of da mojo!"

"Damn, woman!" Woxlox yelled, and then turned to face the nameless assailant. "You be crazy, tryin' to crack my head open!"

"At least I be hittin' da part dat be all bone!" His wife snapped back. "I should be so lucky ta have a skull as thick as yours!"

"Dat's it, woman!" Woxlox shouted as he turned and walked into the kitchen. "You gonna learn some manners now!"

"You and what army?" The female asked from further in the other room than before, her voice confident and unconcerned with her husband's sudden advance. "You couldn't hurt a gnome you limp-tusked son of a nerf herder!"

A roar of rage followed that last insult, only to be matched by a similar one and accompanied by sounds of objects crashing into one another and the ground. Jacob, who had frozen still during the whole exchange, now started to stand up, intending to stop whatever fight was going on.

Just then, though, a large hand fell on his shoulder. Startled, Jacob turned around quickly and had to catch himself to keep from unsheathing his sword when he saw that it was Tohopekaliga who had touched him. "By the Light, you scared me," he blurted.

Toho smiled at that and simply moved over to sit down next to where Jacob was standing. "Sit down and don't worry about them," she said evenly. "They fight like this regularly. They don't hurt each other too much and what they do is regenerated by a troll's freakish biology, anyway."

Again the human was at a loss for words. Confused and unsure, he turned to take another look around the tavern room and saw that, indeed, almost all the customers seemed inured to the sounds of violence. At the very least, they were unconcerned, and when that was matched with Toho's own dispassion Jacob found little reason to do anything but sit back down next to her. Some moments passed while the sounds of fighting continued, before Jacob cleared his throat. "So, did you get that information you wanted?"

"Yup," Toho replied evenly. "The _Maiden's Fancy_ is due in a couple of days, or you can take the goblin ship _Pride of Phyrexia_ next week when they sail to Menethil Harbor. After that, the next ship won't come along for a month, so you should start thinking on where you want to go."

"Yeah," Jacob said, and then turned to look down at the mug he'd been sipping at earlier. "I've got to think on that."

Toho heard something in his voice, despite the racket, and she cast a sidelong glance at him. "Is there a problem?" She asked, concerned.

"Hm?" Jacob mumbled. "Oh. No, just thinking aloud."

"Okay then," Toho said, and then frowned as the noise of the fight continued. "Let's go back and get our things from the animals in the stables; Wox will have rooms for us when we get back, provided he and Selca aren't still fighting."

* * *

The run back to the stables has been quick, thanks to the thinning crowds in the streets, though Jacob was surprised at the sheer number of people still out and about. Fortunately for the tired and somewhat overwhelmed human and his tauren friend, their trip out and back was uneventful and when they returned to the tavern they had found the fight had concluded and a battered Woxlox had given them keys to their rooms, all the while smiling a wide grin. They had gone upstairs and put away their things and slept, though Jacob only succumbed after some considerable thought. Such thoughts followed him into the morning, and he sat pensively at a table in the tavern's main room and ate breakfast. Eventually, though, one idea took hold and he nodded quietly to himself as he made a decision.

"Something agree with you?" A voice sounded, and Jacob turned to see Toho, once again only clad in linen and leather, walking over to sit at the same table.

"Just agreeing with myself," Jacob replied, shifting a bit nervously. "I had to think about what you said last night, about deciding where I want to go and I made up my mind. Well," he added, somewhat sheepishly. "As well as I can given the circumstances."

"Oh? Toho asked. "May I ask what you've decided then?"

Jacob nodded at that, and then shuffled in his seat to lean forward a bit. "What I decided is that, well… I don't really want to go back home just yet," he said carefully, watching Toho's expression for any changes. "My father sent me out to learn of the world, and I have learned quite a bit. I've had my childish notions of easy victory squashed by defeat. I've had my reservations and prejudices about Hordesmen challenged and broken. I've found out my own side can be vicious and cruel. And finally," he paused for a breath. "I've found a good friend.

"Despite all of this, I don't feel like I've seen quite enough," Jacob continued, his eyebrows knitting a bit when he noticed that Toho continued to just give him a deadpan look. "Despite the danger, I intend to travel more of Kalimdor. I would like to think I can avoid most of the mistakes I've made in the past and not end up as I was when you found me, but even so, I think I would like to travel with someone who knows her way around this continent."

Toho blinked at that. "Are you asking to travel with me?" She asked neutrally.

"Aye," Jacob replied. "I realize I would be a burden, being as inexperienced as I still am, not to mention problems with your people who might be mirrors of captain Fairmount. But if you wish, I can pay you and thus have you as a 'hired guide', like what we told the men at Northwatch," he added and took a small coin purse from his belt and set it on the table. "And although we're friends, I hope the added money will offset-"

Toho interrupted him then by reaching across the table with her hand and pressing it down over the top of the one Jacob was resting on his coin purse. "Put your money away," she said sternly, startling the human. Then before he could respond, a smile spread along her muzzle, and Toho gently pushed Jacob's hand and coinage away from her. "I took to hunting the wilds because I generally like to be alone. However, one can be away from others for too long," she added with a nod. "And loneliness touches even the most resolute. I would be glad to have some company for a change."

Jacob smiled back at her as he took his coin purse back and reaffixed it to his belt. "Thank you, my friend," he said warmly.

"And thanks to you as well," Toho replied. "You trust me openly, you're willing to learn and change, and you respect me. Those traits are hard to find in any person, let alone one who until I met him had every reason in the world to dislike me. Whatever travels we make, it will be more rewarding and interesting with you around."

Jacob felt himself blush a bit, and he smiled again. "I shall endeavor to not disappoint," he said friendlily.

"I doubt that you will," Toho said, grinning back. "So the question becomes: where to?"

"Where to?" Jacob echoed a bit surprised at the question. "I guess I haven't thought quite that far yet," he admitted sheepishly. "I wasn't sure what your answer was going to be."

"Fair enough," Toho replied evenly. "Well then, you want to see things you can't see in Kul Tiras, right?" She asked and got a nod in return. "Well I doubt you've seen anything like Un'Goro Crater, or the beasts that live within. And there's plenty to see on the way there, as well."

Jacob thought for a moment. "I've heard of it. It's supposed to be dangerous, isn't it?" He asked, getting a nod from Tohopekaliga. "Well, if you're recommending it, I'm guessing I won't be too clumsy to keep alive there," he added with a grin. "Let's go."

"Excellent," Toho gaily said. "Let me eat some breakfast, then we can be off to get supplies."

"Sounds like a plan," Jacob said, feeling like for once that his life was heading where he wanted it to go. _I suppose I may find an adventure or three after all_, he thought with a grin. _Tally ho!_

The End.

(For now.)


	9. Epilogue

Omiya walked casually through the streets of Ratchet, weaving waif-like through the crowds as she followed behind two figures in particular. Her vision, far stronger than any human's, easily saw the two despite being over a hundred yards away, and she kept up easily with them. She had come to this goblin-built den of iniquity after arranging for Fairmount's transfer to a prison back in Kul Tiras and creating a suitable cover for her own departure, as well. For years she had wandered, unsure of where her abilities could be used best, and now a hint had come to her and she was not going to let it go just yet.

Moving almost automatically, her mind was free to drift back over the memories of the past several days. She thought of the escape and her intervention, but mostly they lingered over the story she had heard Tohopekaliga tell Jacob while spying on them, cloaked against their senses by her powers. _Oh Arthur_, she thought wistfully. _I am so happy you found what you were looking for, and what you have done is greater than any of us could have hoped. Yet how I wish I could have spoken to you one last time; good friends are so hard to come by, even more so in these troubling times._

Her quarry stopped at the stables, and Omiya turned and walked across the street to look at the display window of a tailor's shop. Her mind ran over what she had learned, and the more she thought the more she realized that these two mortals, one from either of Azeroth's great warring factions, might be yet a way to avoid some of the carnage that the future promised. Although she possessed no prophetic powers, Omiya knew very well that the situation between the Horde and Alliance would deteriorate; Fairmount was proof that there were elements within that desired war, and Omiya knew with certainty that there were far too many forces without that desired the destruction of all order.

_Yet despite them all, the pieces snap into place_, Omiya mused as she watched Toho and Jacob enter the stables. She decided she had watched them enough for now, and turned to walk towards the edge of town. _The Light knows when the time is right for those two to act on the grand stage. Until then, I should go looking around, in case I've missed other signs in my myopic priestess role. And then I will speak with the others about what I have found._

The mysterious woman walked quietly, fading out from all but the most keen of senses even before she departed Ratchet. Once outside of the city, she turned south and ascended the hills there, until she found a small, out of the way valley. Omiya took a careful look around with all of her senses to make sure she was alone, and then bowed her head and concentrated. At first nothing happened, but soon enough her whole body seemed to melt slightly, her hair, skin, and even clothes becoming indistinct and shifting around, changing colors and textures. Her body began to grow and change, limbs lengthening and changing shape to become thicker and squat to the point where she fell forward and on to all fours. Her head and neck changed as well, the latter becoming long and sinuous while the former grew a pointed muzzle and horns.

Her transformation occurred more rapidly now, and a tail and wings sprouted from her shifting body in a rush. Her growth remain unchecked, and all parts of her just kept increasing in size until she grew far past what was common for her species, and then into a behemoth size reserved for only a rare few.

All at once, the transformation completed as the surface of her body settled into a pattern of lightly golden scales. At some angles, they would appear white, at others sheen like gold, but from all angles no one could mistake the figure that owned them to be anything less than a dragon.

Omiya was gone, replaced by the being that pretended to be her; Omiyazistena shook her head lightly to get the feel of her true body again. _It has been too long,_ she thought, stretching her wings wide until the tips scrapped the sides of the small valley. _But I cannot maintain my stealth spells while shifting._ She sighed then, the noise soft but loud, and concentrated on her magic until her form shimmered and once again was hidden from all but those who knew how to pierce such magicks.

Confident now that she wouldn't be seen, Omiyazistena leapt straight upwards, gaining just enough height so her wings could flap free. She gained altitude rapidly until she was clear of the hills, and then turned herself to look north over Ratchet again.

It was a den of iniquity, but still she felt protective of it and the beings within. _Everyone, every being is loved by the Light_, she thought as she waited for her two special interests to leave. _But wisdom and justice temper the Light's love, and those who cross the line into the heart of chaos, to embrace that which is evil, must be defeated._ She often repeated these thoughts to herself; to remind her of the sacred charge she and her flight - the sixth and secret one - had been given by Isten, the spiritual Titan. _He knew that his fellow Titans put too much trust in their technology and arcane knowledge, that even the best safeguards could be overwhelmed and corrupted_, she remembered, hearing Isten's glorious voice again as she relived when she and her nascent flight were put into stasis to keep them hidden from the other five, so as to give the latter the greatest chance to fulfill their duty without interference.

_But they failed,_ Omiyazistena thought, remembering awakening to a world shattered by the Sundering. _The Earth Warder corrupted, the Spellweaver driven mad, the Life-Binder bound, the Dreamer distracted, and the Timeless One apathetic, such were the results, and such I and mine have worked to correct. Yet there is so much more to do, so much to accomplish, and so few of us._

She saw then two figures leaving Ratchet atop a ravasaur, a horse, and a kodo, and Omiyazistena smiled. _But maybe that will soon change. We are the Dragons of Light, after all, and soon enough, into the light we must stand, hopefully with those whom the Light has chosen to be its champions._

With that, the immense dragon turned and flapped her wings harder to gain even more altitude. _Keep safe, you two,_ Omiyazistena thought as she angled to the north. _The time of your ascendancy is yet to come._

* * *

Jacob felt on top of the world as he rode the horse he had managed to purchase from the stable master. _The old owner died in a barfight, he said,_ Jacob recalled. _I really hope that is true._ Despite his concern, Toho had vouched for the goblin and so the human had parted with his money. It proved to be a good decision, as now the kodo could be used to carry their supplies, spreading the work amongst three animals and increasing the endurance of all. Now they were off, and the days ahead seemed bright and full of promise.

Off to his left Tohopekaliga suddenly shifted in her saddle and then looked around. "Is something wrong?" Jacob asked.

"Not necessarily," Toho replied, and then turned to look at the human. "Just… Woxlox told me that he told you that sometimes things pop into my head. Well, something just did."

"Oh?" Jacob asked, frowning in concern. "Should I be worried?"

"I don't know," Toho admitted, sounding a bit unsure. "Just… Do you know what a 'Rainbow Dash' is?"

"'Rainbow Dash'?" He asked. "I really have no idea, it doesn't seem to make sense."

"That's what I thought," Toho said, and then looked around again. "Bah, I get ideas like that all the time. Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're just crazy like that."

Jacob gave Toho a look for a moment before his face split in a grin. "Are you sure you're not just simply insane?"

"Well, I am guiding a human around, so maybe I am," Toho retorted with a grin of her own. "Forget what I asked; it's probably nothing. We've got miles to go and never enough time to use, so let us be off."

"Gotcha," Jacob said, and then nudged his mount into a canter. "Try not to let any rainbows distract you."

"If I do I'll just dash ahead," Toho countered as they continued west along the lone paved road out of Ratchet.


End file.
